Tuesday, December 14, 2004
How Did We Americans Let This Happen?
1) December 13, 2004 -- THE Federal Communications Commission has asked NBC to submit a tape of its coverage of the Summer Olympics opening ceremonies to determine if some of the dancing was too sexy for TV.
NBC confirmed over the weekend that the FCC had asked for the tape from the first night of the Athens Olympics.
The commission usually does not initiate an investigation, but acts only after viewer complaints. New York Post
2) FCC to investigate ABC over "Deperate Housewives" advertisement during Monday Night Football. No complaints for up to two days, then a deluge of "complaints" driven by right wing talk radio. Salon has more information here. (If you don't have a membership, you can click through a web commercial to recieve a days membership for free.)
3) Freedom of Information Act request uncovers the truth that only 3 complaints were recieved in relation to episode of "Married With Children" that Fox is expected to pay $1.2 million dollar fine for. Initially the FCC said 159 complaints were received in regards to the "indecent" broadcast. Through a FOIA request, blogger Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine, uncovered that 156 of the complaints were form letters generated by The American Family Association and others. There were only two handwritten complaints out of the 159 letters received. So, we are allowing this small minority to decide what we watch on television. Click Here for more information from Buzz Machine.
4) ABC affiliates refuse to air network broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan," due to curse words in the film, even though there is a warning at the beginning of the film about the strong language in the film. More here from the Guardian via Salon.
5) Refusal of Sinclair Broadcast Group owned stations to broadcast ABC's Nightline in which they read the names of the American dead in the Iraq War. Sinclair said that the broadcast was overtly political, which is funny when everyday their newscasts are full of Right Wing partisan propaganda. Sinclair also found itself in hot water this past fall by broadcasting a blatantly partisan and ultimately untruthful hit piece about Senator John Kerry, "Stolen Honor", during a nasty election campaign for the presidency. Sinclair's stock went into a free fall following a threatened consumer boycott of the station's advertisers. More Here.
6) Government "abstinence only" programs filled with misinformation such as petting leads to pregnancy, 50% of gay teens are AIDS infected, abortion leads to sterility and suicide, flawed "scientific" claims as to the effectivness of condom usage in reducing and preventing STD's and pregnancy, etc... $170 million dollars are allocated to these programs by the US Government. For Representative Henry Waxman's report on these programs, click here.
This is only the beginning. A must read is Theocracy Watch, and a piece in the New York Times on December 13th, 2004 about the Christian Right and their rush to codify their "values agenda." We can no longer trust our fellow citizens to make the right decisions if they are not being given truthful information that will enable them to make an informed decision. This is a propaganda war and the right has succeeded in duping the American public into believing their lies. We have the truth on our side, but we cannot expect people to automatically know that. We need to fight everyday and not let up even when battles are won. We progressives/liberals tend to revel too much in our victories and not learn from our losses. Now is the time to fight!!!
NBC confirmed over the weekend that the FCC had asked for the tape from the first night of the Athens Olympics.
The commission usually does not initiate an investigation, but acts only after viewer complaints. New York Post
2) FCC to investigate ABC over "Deperate Housewives" advertisement during Monday Night Football. No complaints for up to two days, then a deluge of "complaints" driven by right wing talk radio. Salon has more information here. (If you don't have a membership, you can click through a web commercial to recieve a days membership for free.)
3) Freedom of Information Act request uncovers the truth that only 3 complaints were recieved in relation to episode of "Married With Children" that Fox is expected to pay $1.2 million dollar fine for. Initially the FCC said 159 complaints were received in regards to the "indecent" broadcast. Through a FOIA request, blogger Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine, uncovered that 156 of the complaints were form letters generated by The American Family Association and others. There were only two handwritten complaints out of the 159 letters received. So, we are allowing this small minority to decide what we watch on television. Click Here for more information from Buzz Machine.
4) ABC affiliates refuse to air network broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan," due to curse words in the film, even though there is a warning at the beginning of the film about the strong language in the film. More here from the Guardian via Salon.
5) Refusal of Sinclair Broadcast Group owned stations to broadcast ABC's Nightline in which they read the names of the American dead in the Iraq War. Sinclair said that the broadcast was overtly political, which is funny when everyday their newscasts are full of Right Wing partisan propaganda. Sinclair also found itself in hot water this past fall by broadcasting a blatantly partisan and ultimately untruthful hit piece about Senator John Kerry, "Stolen Honor", during a nasty election campaign for the presidency. Sinclair's stock went into a free fall following a threatened consumer boycott of the station's advertisers. More Here.
6) Government "abstinence only" programs filled with misinformation such as petting leads to pregnancy, 50% of gay teens are AIDS infected, abortion leads to sterility and suicide, flawed "scientific" claims as to the effectivness of condom usage in reducing and preventing STD's and pregnancy, etc... $170 million dollars are allocated to these programs by the US Government. For Representative Henry Waxman's report on these programs, click here.
This is only the beginning. A must read is Theocracy Watch, and a piece in the New York Times on December 13th, 2004 about the Christian Right and their rush to codify their "values agenda." We can no longer trust our fellow citizens to make the right decisions if they are not being given truthful information that will enable them to make an informed decision. This is a propaganda war and the right has succeeded in duping the American public into believing their lies. We have the truth on our side, but we cannot expect people to automatically know that. We need to fight everyday and not let up even when battles are won. We progressives/liberals tend to revel too much in our victories and not learn from our losses. Now is the time to fight!!!
