From: lunaslide@loop.com
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 17:26:39 +0800
To: avatar@mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Tell me whats wrong with this
Message-ID: <v0153050cad40ac339043@[206.138.116.128]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>Tell me whats wrong with this section of the telecom bill.  I have a six
>year old boy I am trying to raise
>and it is hard enough to teach him respect and values without explaining why
>Ned Beatty is being
>bungholed in the woods by Billy Bob or why the Terminator splattered this
>guys brains all over the
>wall.
>        Tell me why parents should not be able to censor their OWN
>television so that they may raise their children the way THEY see
>fit...................Did your dad give you his old
>playboys?.........NOOOOO............

<snip>

A note here...my dad also did not go to jail for two years and get fined
$100,000 when I weasled my way into his closet, without his knowledge, and
found his Playboys at age five!

>All I'm saying is it's tough to raise a child these days without the added
>distortion of modern
>programing and parents need not be denied any tool that can help them
>achieve success.

<rm for brevity>

I didn't see anything really wrong with that part of the bill.  What it
will encourage is advertisers to withdraw from the more violent shows, and
in turn will encourage television producers to prefer funding less violent
shows.  Since I don't watch television that often anyhow, it won't affect
me very much.

I do see where it will deny those who wish to see such shows the violence
they wish to see.  This is an issue, and it is indirectly caused by the
bill, but it can not be used effectively against the govt. because they did
not directly outlaw violence.

It is particularly the CDA which boils my blood.  One other concern,
however, is that the lifting of restrictions on who can compete for what
will result in mergers and buyouts of internet providers and that when only
a few major companies own the bulk of the industry, the consumers will
suffer from content restriction, technological lag and possibly price
gouging.  I note the car, oil, software and media industries as a few
examples.  For example, journalists have traditionally been in support of
free speech and civil rights; they are, for the most part, rather liberal.
However, they, particularly those in television journalism, have been
notably absent in this battle over net censorship and have definitely not
been there to support us.  In fact, they have even spoken to our cause's
detriment on many occasions, by the slant of their pieces!  I can only
attribute this logically to the fact that the internet takes attention away
from their industry.  The internet competes with television and print as an
information source, and this the owners of the media do not want.  It's
sort of an unspoken conspiricy (appologies, I've already been accused of
turning this into ConspiricyPunks once before:-)

Nontheless, those are some of my concerns over the telcom bill aside from
the obvious CDA.

lunaslide

On the meridian of time there is no injustice, only the poetry of motion
creating the illusion of truth and drama.
                                                Henry Miller