Republicans and Democrats are having a decency hearing about today's media in society. It's going on right now on C-Span. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) is chairing, and I tuned in just in time to hear the other senator from Arkansas talking about his family. He was talking about how he is scared to death about his 10 and 11 year old kids watching today's television. He talked about how he loves Nickelodeon, but hates MTV. Other democratic senators are talking about all the "pornography and violence" on cable these days. They also talk about how confusing the rating system is for the TV, and how the media hasn't done a good job informing the public about it.
I have one question for these senators. In all due respect to actual retarded persons, are these guys freakin' retarded?
Have they heard of the V-Chip? Actually I know they have because they mentioned in in thier opening statements, and how it's not working. Excuse me? It solves all problems. Parents choose what ratings they will allow to be shown on the TV, and it blocks everying they don't want. Simple. Die Hard was on the Fox Movie Channel the other night, unedited, and it was great. What a great movie, and I can't think of one that loses more when it is edited for TV. Imagine my glee when I saw Hans blow Mr. Yakatomi's brains all over the wall. Awesome. Now, would I want a 10 year old to see that? Probably not. When I have kids, I will simple have the TV not show any MA rated programs until they are ready.
Does the honorable Senator from Arkansas know about the ability to remove channels from the television line-up? Pretty simple. After doing so, the TV just skips the channel when browing like it wasn't even there. I have done so with the home shopping and spanish channels on my TV.
If parents truly cared about their children and what they watched, don't you think they could take a couple minutes out of their day and actually learn what the rating abbreviations mean?
I kind of feel like I'm talking to a child. Unfortunaly, from listening to our senators on TV, they are the ones that sound like 10 year olds.