Censorship

I'm no fan of Howard Stern. Not because he's offensive, which he undoubtedly is, but because I find his stuff 99% juvenile stupidity, and it's not worth my time. I have absolutely no reason, however, to support the efforts which are forcing him out of mainstream broadcasting.

Because I believe in the 1st amendment. I believe that censoring things 'because they have no redeeming social value' is just a slippery slope into censoring the 'wrong' political or religious beliefs.

I was reading some of my daily round of blogs, when I found a link to this: FCC complicit with political complaint machine to censor the airwaves.

Now the organization at the root of this complaint is the Parents Televsiion Council. Now I do believe that parents should be monitoring what their kids watch, and how much of it. But these people seem to want to control what other parents let their kids watch as well. That's just not the way the marketplace of ideas works. Personally, I think 95% or better of what's on TV is crap, a complete waste of time. But I'm not agitating to make you, the viewer, stop watching it. If anything, I'd like a more closed loop that allows people to indicate exactly what kind of programming they desire, even if it's porn or Christian evangelical (which I also despise).

I have the option of turning my TV off. Or getting rid of it. And so does every parent in America. There is no compelling reason to have one, you can get everything you need without it. If you don't like what you see, don't participate.