It has been reported that children between the ages of 13 and 17 spend an average of 33.35 days a year in front of a television or movie screen. These numbers come from a study by IMMI data research organization. For this reason, it’s extremely important to control what is being shown on television screens. For the last several years, TV’s broadcast networks have been engaged in a slow and subtle campaign against laws requiring decency on the public airwaves. First, they went to court claiming the “right” to air profanity — even the “f-word” — any time they want, without restriction. Then they claimed that a program showing a naked woman getting into a shower in front of a child wasn’t “indecent.” And then they said that Janet Jackson’s breast-baring striptease during the 2004 Super Bowl wasn’t indecent.

Bit by bit, sort of like the Chinese water torture, the networks have been using lawsuits and the courts to erode laws against indecency on the public airwaves. But now, the networks have shown their true colors at last. In a news release, the networks declared that they are totally opposed to all laws against indecency! The networks that make billions of dollars every year by using the airwaves owned by the public – and use them free of charge — are now saying that there should be absolutely no decency laws whatsoever! The networks believe that they should have the “freedom” to air any profanity, any amount of nudity, as much explicit sex, and all the graphic and gratuitous violence they want, without any restrictions.

In their release, the networks criticized the Supreme Court’s Pacifica and Red Lion rulings — rulings which are the cornerstone of indecency law – as being old and outmoded. The broadcast networks claim that, because of cable and satellite TV, broadcast TV is no longer “uniquely pervasive,” and that the GOVERNMENT should be forced to prove that it has a “right” to regulate them.

It’s apparent that the multi-billionaire bosses who run the broadcast networks believe they are above the law, that they don’t have to care what millions of Americans want. Contact your Senators and Representatives in Congress and urge them to support S. 1780 — the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming bill. This law would give the FCC the power to enforce decency regulations – and would force the networks to obey the law like everyone else.

Source: Parent’s Television Council

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