"Censorship"

While in my 72nd year of life, I remain the product of my sheltered childhood. Was I exposed to "swear words" in the schoolyard? I certainly was. Did I hear words like penis, vagina, or orgasm in a school or familial environment? Of course I did not. Anything my Mother didn't want me to see or hear was "categorized" as inappropriate. She was the censor, and I was the victim of the censorship. Violence was an issue, but a minor one. It was sex that I was to be protected from, and I still don't know why that was and still is so.

I have written that we are a secular nation, and I would like to believe that we are. Many of my friends say that we are a Judeo/Christian nation, and to believe otherwise is a mistake.

I have long wondered what constitutes obscenity or indecency. If you can't commit either into a code of behavior, how can you make it into a law? How much and which parts of a breast is obscene or indecent? There are so many permutations and combinations to this that it's frightening.

When I was working at MGM/UA, CBS wanted to buy a run of a Woody

Allen movie if they could delete a single use of the word "fuck" Allen refused, and the film was never shown on free television. Would the audience have turned to stone if they heard the word? I think not. What would happen today on broadcast television if CBS decided to run the picture with the offending word still in the film? Would the FCC or the congress fine and perhaps sanction the network for it's use, as a result, the film would not be shown in its entirety.

My friends would be very surprised to hear me say that I would try to respect the sensitivity of the people who would not be happy seeing or hearing sexual content on free, over the air television. Now having said that, how do you protect the creative process, while at the same time protect those viewers from this content? The worst possible solution is the one we will now employ, humungous fines for violations of something that is impossible to define. Would Seinfeld or Friends be considered obscene or indecent? Will today's network "standards and practices" people be working overtime to protect their audience from these provocative types of shows in the future? Will broadcast television become totally bland and uninteresting because of these rules? What will happen to HBO and Showtime in the future in that they will be unrestricted? Will people who want to see sexual (or indecent) content rush to these pay services? The Motion Picture Industry avoided the possible wrath of government by its rating system. While the Movie Companies do not use the publicly owned airwaves, they seem to have satisfied those opposed to the sexual and violent content that they were selling. While I would find a rating system repugnant for Television, it would seem to be better for both sides of the issue then the destructive system of fines to protect the nation from breasts, and words.

How to do this is not simple, and both sides of the issue would object, but is there a better answer then this available? We of course could utilize the repugnant V chip in that it was designed for just this type of situation, but I'm sure that we wont.

Why would it come as a surprise when Howard Stern is vulgar? At the same time people should be officially warned of this so that they can switch to another channel. Stern (who I don't like and don't listen to) should be free to be disgusting, obscene, or indecent if he chooses to be.

There is no question that cable and satellite homes should be able to buy ala carte offerings, and that providers have used "bundling" to force customers to buy what they don't want in order to get what they do want. Let's see if the congress is willing to take this one on in the near future.

I can hear the opposition shouting "what about our children"? Well what about them? The government should not restrict the dissemination of news and entertainment programs other then to provide a warning system to those who are interested in such a system, and leave everyone else alone, including fans of Howard Stern

Norman Horowitz

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