For the most part, it’s parents’ responsibility to monitor what their children are watching on TV and to screen out objectionable programs.
But a new study shows just how difficult parental oversight has become: Since 1988, the number of sex scenes on TV has doubled, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of more than 1,000 programs.
True, the numbers might be driven in part by the increase in programming in recent years. And researchers defined sexual content as everything from sex talk to kissing to intercourse.
Still, it’s undeniable that sex on TV is pervasive (70 percent of shows have sexual content) and often gratuitous. A parent has to be on constant vigilance — and that’s too bad.
TV networks are shirking their responsibility to provide more family friendly fare.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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33 Comments
It’s all crap, IMHO! I don’t watch shows like that, Desperate Housewives, Sex in the City, and etc. I guess they appeal to a good size audience, but to me they are boring, repeatable/recycled plots and story lines. Basically they are just romance novels on television.
I caught the tail end of Gray’s Anatomy sometimes because I’m waiting for the night newscast, and what a yawn. Just a bunch of doctors dating each other, cheating/affairs on each other, and some blood.
Back to Mythbusters for me. :)
If Network ownership had any moral responsibility, parents wouldn’t have to be vigil, the Networks wouldn’t allow that crap on their stations. So take a good hard look at the ownership, and don’t buy their advertisers products. Hit the Zionists right in their immoral pocketbooks. Send a message.
And right now Israel is quietly pushing a 2.5 billion dollar military aid package through congress. Our sold-out congress is helping to keep it quiet. Again, hit the Zionists right in their immoral pocketbooks. Send a message. Write your Senator.
Network TV writers have a choice to either write well, or use foul language, sex and violence as do writers in Hollywood.
So why are those degenerates choosing to degrade our culture?
The answer is as simple as looking at their culture.
Since when is it the responsibility of the television networks to raise children? They are a for-profit business, and they are broadcasting what sells and what gets ratings. The American public must want that trash, since the sleazy shows have the highest ratings.
Nothing is being jammed down anyone’s throats…if people didn’t watch the sleaze, it wouldn’t be there. Besides, there is that magic button that says “off”. Try it sometime you are offended by what is on television.
Ray I must agree with you.There are several family channels offered 24/7. Technology has made it possible for parents to censor programming in their homes.Israel into kiddy porn? Huh.I’ve never been spammed with Israeli anything, let alone kiddy porn.
Kids are clever and curious. If it’s made available they’ll find it, just like drugs.
“The parents are responsible to police the porn-pros argument,” falls flat on its face.
Unless, of course, you don’t want it to.
Joe, I agree with you. Producers that give us the crap take the easy way to generating viewer numbers. Sex sells.
They need to be challenged to produce better programming that avoids sex, bad language, and violence. But they won’t change unless the viewers say that they want better.
On the other hand, there are a number of good television networks and programs that produce very good work. You usually have to have cable and even digital cable to get them.—–
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_12/b3925081_mz015.htm
Censorship is in place now, but the standards just keep getting lower.
Someone is making those decisions to lower standards now, and just as well could be raising them to family standards.
Also the time that rank TV is showing keeps getting closer to family dinner time. Someone is deciding that as well.
And children under 18 are able to see things on TV, which they’re not allowed access to in theaters.
The vast majority of Americans feel strongly that all this needs to be, and should be cleaned-up.
Though perhaps with present company excluded.
1. Un-subscribe to cable. Since I have never subscribed, I don’t have to unsubscribe.
2. Stop watching crap TV. In a half our of “programming,” there’re 8 minutes of ads, teasers and announcements . . . that’s over a fourth of your viewing time.
3. If you’re not watching TV, you don’t have to pay for cable. DUH.
4. Use the money to go to shows or to rent movies that you actually want to see in their entirety without commercial interruption.
5. Most intelligent people have already taken steps 1-4. That’s why TV is the way it is. Idiots watch it the most . . . so they make shows to appeal to idiots.
Case in point–”Survivor,” “That 70’s Show,” “Sex in the City,” “Will and Grace” and 95 percent of everything else out there.
If it weren’t for PBS and college football, I wouldn’t even bother to own a set.
BTW, if they wanted to make a “Survivor” worth watching, they’d put it in downtown Fallujah.
THAT would finally live up to its hype.
TV is the drug of choice for a society that has to numb itself from the real world it has created.
Sex and violence have been essential to storytelling since whoever told that first tale! Greek theater and the plays of Shakespeare are chock-full of both! Euripedes and Shakespeare, et al, along with the bible, have lots of blatant sex and violence; they also have all the storytelling skills that make them a vital portrayal of what humanity is all about.The difference is that our movie technology is so good at portraying images that the demand for new stories has long outstripped the supply of good ones, and too many mediocre writers are forced to use shock value in various forms as a substitute for decent storytelling in feeding the voracious, demanding monster modern movies and television have become.
There is still a lot of good drama out there. We just need to sort it out from all the sexy, violent and sentimental mental chewing gum that fills up the spaces between it! That’s something each of us has to do for ourselves; the various authorities have a horrible track record of editing to promote their own agendas.
Galahad..
Once again, we are in agreement (strange thought!). Don’t forget the ultimate in crass, “Fear Factor”. Even the commercials for it are revolting..yet it draws an audience, and that is what the network is looking for. Quality programming? We can dream…
Quality programing can never make the ratings to stay on the air. Broadcasting is only driven by ratings and money. To expect broadcasters to censure themselves or hold themselves morally accountable to their audience is a joke. Once, I confronted one of the GMs at Clear Channel for the trash TV promoted at Fox. Her reply was true and on the mark, “If people didn’t want to watch it, it wouldn’t be there”.The only choice is to keep it out of your home, because it’s not going to go away no matter how many people complain. Ratings are the only thing that impact broadcasters and Jerry Springer is still the most popular show on TV.Pretty scary, isn’t it?
Joe, I take exception to your comment about romance novels. My guess is you’ve never read one. If you had, you’d know that the majority of them are not about sex, but about relationships. And not all romance novels contain sex.
As for TV, let’s face it. Sex sells. It’s unfortunate, but that’s what it’s come down to. That includes even the commercials, evidenced by a stripping piece of chewing gum. I rarely watch TV anymore, and I’m picky about what movies I see.
So does art imitate life, or life imitate art?
Let’s face it folks. TV programmers produce the drivel that passes for entertainment because thru polls, ratings, box office sales, etc. WE tell them that this is the crap that we want to watch as a nation. If it ain’t making money then it isn’t on the air. If it is making money and alot of it, then expect the air waves to be clogged with more of the same. Have one good cop show and next season there are forty average to bad cop shows. So, do not blame the producers, they are only filling the need that WE as a nation have asked for.
The oldest journalistic trick: sensationalism.
We didn’t ask for their crap. They staged a train-wreck and now berate us for looking? And charge that we asked for what they gave us?
Baloney.
They’re asking us to give our moral culture and march to their garbage. That’s all, and are we expected to just rollover and take it?
I say fight-back. Hit their advertisers. They’re the ones financing their garbage.
Looks like they pulled the Ed post about Israel being porn purveyors.Must be a conspiracy.Thank you conspirators.
Looks like they clamped your filty foul-mouth shut. What a wecome relief.
Now try to quit while your even.
The point is where do the producers draw the line.
They do draw a line, but where’s the benchmark?
As I said before, they do have sensors ruling as to sex, violence, and language, but over the years those standards keep getting lower.
Naked “streakers” would probably increase viewing, but they’re not doing that. { yet }
Tracy…
Yep…he got pulled..as did several others. Glad someone is watching the hated and venom that is spewed forth here. I second your thanks to the conspirators!
Thank you Ray, all I wrote was the word shitty, that’s not so bad is it?When people spew that kind of stuff their credibility kind of goes south doesn’t it?
My husband has worked in the broadcasting business for a long time. It’s all about money, not some hidden Hollywood agenda to ruin the morals of our country. If a show is watched, then it stays on the air. If a show isn’t watched enough, it’s dropped.Just wait until sweeps in February, when the networks compete for ranking. You’ll see even more sex and violence, because they all know that’s what viewers will watch. It’s the American majority that rules what’s on TV, which is a sad statement about our culture.
Ray,While I am totally disgusted by most of what Ed spews, as well as a few others (Ian comes to mind), I really wish they wouldn’t pull them off! First and foremost, you can’t fight ‘em if you don’t get to see what they say, and second, it gives these assholes an outlet for their hatred that might otherwise go toward more violent action.Censorship is counterproductive!
Yeah well, Jed, he suggested that I supported kiddy porn in the USA.(distributed by zionists of course)How’s that one grab ya’?You want to be nice to a guy like that go for it. I think I’ve joined the majority of the regulars here who just work around the posts by the two bigots you just mentioned.
They also pulled some completely unrelated posts of mine that were as clean and proper as can be!Kind of like spanking all your kids because one acted up.
As hard as it is, I agree the best thing is to ignore them. When a 2 yr old acts out, the last thing you should do is give him an audience.
Tracy,If you check my posts, you won’t find a nice word I’ve said to, or about, either of those yahoos! I wasn’t being nice! And, of course his remarks about you and zionist kiddie porn(?) were certainly way out of line. I just feel that censorship, as a way to supress ideas, is not just ineffective, it is counterproductive. It gives some of the worst people a sort of Robin Hoodish respectability they shouldn’t get. Sunlight is the best way to remove their stain!
” Sunlight is the best way to remove their stain!”
Google: Israeli child porn: 2,200,000 hits.
Lots of “conspirators?”
Do you speak-out and condemn prurient interests or shoot the messenger.
Ed,Sunlight is sunlight, and Google isn’t. It’s no oracle either.Child porn is child porn, and it comes from everywhere. The fact that some comes from Israel doesn’t make it a zionist plot any more than Jaffa oranges are! You really need to get outa that rut! Making sense would also be a good strategy to try.
You need to get out of your rut of denying the obvious.
I guess making sense is asking too much of you too!
That fact that you need to get out of your rut of denying the obvious is making sense.
That is the point.