Anonymous Patron writes “Paul K. McMasters, the First Amendment ombudsman at the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center, has ThisOne in the Daily Herald, Provo Utah, on the censor’s perfect formula: One word plus one complaint plus one calculation equals millions of words for an audience of thousands wiped from existence. He writes: It is left to the rest of us, watching from the sidelines, to ask: Just how much power are we willing to allow those in power to grant to citizen groups that are on a mission to confine our choices to their tastes?
As we are already seeing in too many instances, how quickly and easily a whiff of regulation can turn into the stench of censorship”
smell of cowardice
Responsibility cuts both ways. They had to shut down the entire program? Talk about an overreaction.
I also got a kick out of this:
As for helpless parents, they certainly have a lot more options for “decent” fare on TV these days with family, religious, news and sports programming at an all-time high. And those who wish to protect themselves and their children from indecency have access to a wide range of tools:
For broadcast: safe-harbor time, the rating system, and the V-chip to block unwanted programming.
For cable: channel and program blocking.
For digital cable: restrictions on viewing based on content rating, title, time or date in addition to blocking programs or channels.
For satellite: parental-control technology.
I’ll bet cash money that the writer was making fun of the V-Chip when it first came out.