They Don't Want You to See It

One trademark of today's loudmouth religious radicals is their preoccupation with other people's sins. For instance, here in Montgomery County, any parent can keep their kid out of the sex-ed classes simply by not signing the permission slip. Don't want them to take it? No problem, just don't sign the form. People who don't approve of the class can keep their child out of it by doing absolutely nothing. But, it turns out, that's not really what they're after. The thing is, they don't want other people's children learning about sexuality.

You might remember the Parents Television Council. They're the ones -- usually the only ones -- who complain when somebody uses a bad word on a TV show, or like when Janet Jackson's brass pasty was exposed for several milliseconds.

You will also remember that every television set in America has a "V-chip," a thing you can program so that your kids won't be exposed to sex and violence on TV. This was something President Clinton pushed and implemented. Through the V-chip, parents have control over the content on their TV.

Of course, as you may have noticed, nobody really cares enough to use the thing. Have you ever seen anybody program their V-chip? Even once? Naw, of course not, because when you get right down to it, this is the purest hypocrisy -- nobody's really offended by the lame stuff on TV, they just want to accuse other people of ugliness.

Anyway, the TV industry is launching a big drive to remind people that the V-chip exists, and, I guess, to tell them about how to use it. In case they forgot.

You'd think the Parents Blah Blah group would love the V-chip, wouldn't you? It gives parents, not networks, control over what will be shown in their homes. You can show nothing but good, decent programming in your house, and your kids will grow up to be perfect ladies and gentlemen.

C'mon, you didn't really think they'd be satisfied with that, did you?

Family-programming advocacy group Parents Television Council on Thursday blasted a newly launched broadcast-industry campaign touting use of the V-Chip, the device designed to allow parents to block sexually explicit and violent television programming.

Calling the cable- and satellite-industry rating system on which V-Chip blocking is based "inaccurate," the PTC offered its support instead for legislation that would require cable and satellite providers to apply broadcast indecency standards or offer a la carte or new "family tier" programming. Parents group derides V-Chip ads

Man, you can think of so many ways to deal with this; nobody has to have gross, indecent, foul stuff on their TV. Like ... throw the thing out. Unplug it (throw the circuit-breaker if you think the kids will plug it back in. They'll never figure that one out). I don't know, it just seems so easy. Don't turn the TV on if you don't like what it's showing you -- nobody's forcing you to watch it.

At the press conference announcing the new bill, PTC President L. Brent Bozell described the campaign as a "shameful publicity stunt" that is "designed to absolve (the entertainment industry) of all responsibility for the raw sewage it pumps into America's living rooms night after night."

"The truth of the V-chip, aside from all the rhetoric, is that for the V-Chip to work, first and foremost it must rely on the ratings system. If the ratings system doesn't work, then the V-Chip doesn't work," Bozell told CNET News.com. The inaccuracy of the ratings system is all the more reason for parents to decide which specific channels they want to order, he said.

Yeah, that's what they want, they want you to be able to pick and choose what channels you'll get, not take some package the cable company puts together. Well, I suppose a lot of us would like that. I don't know why they have to be so ugly about it.

Hahaha, this thing cuts both ways. Did you see the news a month or so ago, when these nuts realized that if people could pick and choose the channels they got, nobody would watch the Christian channels? Yeah, you might not want to get a bunch of scantily-dress chicks gyrating on MTV, and you might also not want Pat Robertson stinkin' up your living room.

Tough call.

For some people.