FCC's "Wardrobe Malfunction" fine against CBS dropped by court

[MikefromDelaware]

The “blame Hollywood” mantra is flawed as well. We, collectively, are responsible for what we see. Hollywood follows the money trail. If we didn’t buy the CDs, if we didn’t tune in to the shows, if we didn’t go to the movies, guess what would happen? If G-rated films raked in hundreds of millions of dollars consistently, do you really think we wouldn’t be seeing more of them? Do some people have specific agendas? No doubt.

I was watching an interesting show on, I believe it was TCM (Turner Classic Movies) a couple of months ago, and they were showing film clips of some rather risque films made in 1931. These clips dealt with homosexuality as well as hetrosexual sex. Hollywood had those agenda's even back then. What kept a lot of that in check in later years was the formation of the Hayes Commission (sometime during the terms of FDR) to oversee (censor) what Hollywood was producing. So the blame Hollywood mantra may not be as flawed as one would think. It does appear that Hollywood will push the envelope where ever and when ever they think they can get away with it. Sure money plays a part in it, but the "bohemian" heart reigns in tinsletown and they are creative in finding ways to make lots of money while at the same time pushing an agenda, be it political or sexual.

 

[mleach]

Another point on this, the Super Bowl is now an international show. Somehow, I think it degrades our nation to have a show like what Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake did represent our nation shown around the world. You might not agree, but I'm not alone in that feeling at all.

You are right about that !! But..I do seem to recall when this happened that pretty much the ONLY complaints about the "boob" cames from America. Canada aired the Superbowl as well..they had a complaint..maybe two total. I do remember CTV ( maybe it was CBC ) who felt the entire uproar about Jackson & Timberlake was "silly".

Its easy for us to forget that in a lot of other countries, morals and standards are very different than ours. Heck its that way in our own country !!! Some cities, morals and values are more liberal than what is the norm in other cities.

I can remember back in the late 70's going to a private school in Virginia. At the time I had two teachers one from London the other from France. At the time many churches were going after shows like Benny Hill, Monty Python, and Soap ( mainly over the Billy Crystal "Jody" gay character ). Both of my teachers thought that was so odd. I see their point. At the time one of the UK's top djs who was on the air over there was an openly gay man. No one over there seemed to care about that. However over here, even today there are groups like Exodus International who have in the past tried ( and I believe succeeded in a few places ) in getting gay men/women or even those they THINK could be gay taken off the air and fired from their jobs. I should know..one of their local members tried for years to get one of our jocks fired from his morning show job because he was gay. No..he wasn't using his show to promote the gay life or whatever, he just played the tunes like the rest of us. So far the effort by Exodus hasn't work though since he is still on the air. I often wondered what my British teacher would have thought about all of this?

I believe in France, TV nudity is so commonplace that even some ads have nudity in them and I believe its the same in other countries too. And isn't there some country ( Norway ? ) where violence gets the X rating while sex & nudity gets the PG treatment, the reverse as it is here?

 

[dhett]

I believe in France, TV nudity is so commonplace that even some ads have nudity in them and I believe its the same in other countries too.

I don't know about France, but that's certainly the case in the Netherlands. Of course, in their enlightened wisdom, the Dutch have decided it's OK for adults to have sex with 12-year-olds as well.

 

[Nate Wesley]

The “blame Hollywood” mantra is flawed as well. We, collectively, are responsible for what we see. Hollywood follows the money trail. If we didn’t buy the CDs, if we didn’t tune in to the shows, if we didn’t go to the movies, guess what would happen? If G-rated films raked in hundreds of millions of dollars consistently, do you really think we wouldn’t be seeing more of them? Do some people have specific agendas? No doubt. But the layers and layers of filters help ensure that agendas are secondary to what sells. It’s not unlike politics—people decry negative advertising…but time and time again, the results show the tactics work.

Family entertainment hasn’t died, though some of it has moved. There are plenty of generally age-appropriate choices if parents just use the tools available to them. Maybe some of those choices are on DVDs, some on specific cable channels at certain times (that’s what DVRs are for), etc.

Agreed. You put it much better than I could have.

'Actors' like Jonah Hill and donkey stunt men like Steve-O didn't get popular (and enriched) by themselves. They had our help.