Why Worry About Television?

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 494
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If you listen to the Parents Television Council (PTC), our homes and family values are under attack from the television stations - that's both the broadcast and cable versions. It seems there's too much sex, drugs, and rock n' roll. Add in underlying violence in so many of the most popular series and the occasional profanity, and you have a perfect storm. How are parents to cope with all this raw evil being piped into their homes? At any moment, children may see something unfortunate and then how are parents to explain it away? Forget about personal embarrassment. This is a real political problem connected with free speech. Talk to any broadcaster and you will hear all about the First Amendment. Except when it comes to obscenity and anything that might be helping terrorists, we have the right to say and write what we like. The idea of imposing limits on what can be shown on television screens is the kind of thing you might expect in Communist China where the control freaks want everything said to show them in a good light. But here in the US? You must be joking!

Except the PTC is not joking. It and other organizations ...
... believe there's a general trend exposing the young to undesirable influences. For the most part, these are right-wing, Christian movements that object to anything that might threaten or undermine their world view. The lefties are more liberal in spirit, believing in exposing their children to a wide a range of different points of view - it's supposed to make them into more rounded people. No matter which political camp is correct, the debate is currently focussed on erectile dysfunction ads. At present, there's no limit on when they can be shown. The PTC is arguing there should either be a watershed or the times these ads are to be shown should be listed in advance so that parents can switch off the television.

The idea of a watershed is interesting. Erectile dysfunction ads are aimed at an older demographic. Although it can affect some younger men, the majority of sufferers are over 50. Broadcasting the ads during the day is therefore not likely to find the men at home (unless we are to assume the ads are actually targeting the women who may not be getting enough sex because of their partners' shortcomings). So a voluntary code ensuring no ads are broadcast before, say, 9 p.m. might be a good compromise. Except how many children go to sleep before 9 p.m.? So many have televisions in their rooms and lie in bed watching cable until they fall asleep, a watershed is not going to help that much.

If you asked Bayer when their Levitra ads were to be broadcast, it could not tell you. Along with most large advertisers, they buy packages of time and leave it to the television stations to place all the ads. Getting listings of the times these ads are to be shown is therefore a challenge. Put all these factors together and the reality is Levitra ads will continue to appear on our screens during the day. One of the family values we are all to learn is that it's good to be able to talk with our children about difficult topics.