[PLUG-TALK] morality in media

[anonymous]

The site to look at is http://www.moralityinmedia.org.  
Recently I got a warning about something called Alexa 
on a Windows box.  Apparently, a registry key intended 
to cause the receipt of XXX material surreptitiously.  
One site even went so far as to accuse Microsoft of 
being in league with this Alexa phenomenon to profit.

There has been a lot of flaming against the notion of community
standards.  Does the Internet have to be a morally depraved
network, never mind the good of communities and society as a 
whole?  

One poor decision of the Bush administration I cannot
support is allowing a few large national media networks to take
over broadcast television arguing that most people have cable.
Never mind there is neither free cable nor a history of cable
being under the same moral pressures broadcast television used 
to be under.  There was a time when noone could buy a time
slot to advertise XXX materials over broadcast stations.  
There was even a time when sexual content in every or most 
of the programs a broadcast television station aired wasn't 
the norm.  The rest seems to be stupid reality series or
sitcoms.  It seems there are few programs that can entertain,
many programs these days evoke a high degree of controversy 
or contain disturbing content.  Everwood is not easy view, 
it's a story of one train wreck followed by another, and 
another, and...  The Jamie Kennedy experiment is rude.
Alias is being pumped on sex appeal.  Jake 2.0 is too if
you really scrutinize even just a limited number of the
episodes.  The practice isn't about law so much as it is
about sex, power, divorce, and a view of the legal system
meant to "entertain," but not meant to impress.  In CSI, 
some of the workers are supposedly ex prostitutes.  The 
Handler it deals with prostitution.  A lot of the COPS
shows show that as well. I consider it cruel and unusual
to show people being picked up by the police, but that's
another issue.  Instead of a real 70's production like
Hardy boys, we have that 70's show.  The latter program
is guilty of sexual explicit displays also.  Can anyone
name a "popular" broadcast show that doesn't take on
a sex theme at some point?

I propose banning nationwide networks and reality shows 
that involve: watching a person live their life in front 
of a camera, dating with a commentator shop talking 
about poking fun, putting oneself in danger against 
other people doing the same for money...  The free 
speechers will scream, but there are some serious 
ethical issues raised by some of these reality 
programs.

Sex has poisoned even the current Star Trek spinoff also
poisoned by an over reliance on violence.
For Enterprise it is a nude Tapal, never mind Dr. Flox excesses.
Smack down is violent.  Though not as bad as Enterprise's nude
Tapal, Smack Down is not good clean wrestling.  How many times
has WB32 advertised an Everwood episode that will involve sex?
Andromeda's Captain Dylan Hunt has been very casual about sex.  
So much technology these days to do science fiction, do today's 
sci fi's have to be ruined by injecting the theme of "casual" 
sex into them?    

What is the deal with programs such as Survivor?  Is there 
supposed to be some entertainment value in watching a group 
of people be put in a life threatening situation pitted 
against one another?

What our entertainment seems to be reflecting is an extreme 
pessimism.  It's like we are complacent, welcoming an 
everyone dies theme or a this man gets hurt for no reason 
theme.  The last Star Trek film flopped, probably because
of over reliance on sex and violence to build plot and grab
interest.  One could even argue that Star Wars Episode 2
wasn't very good because the Jedi council came off as having
never acted wisely with Anakin.  How is he supposed to protect 
a senator he wants to have an affair with?  The senseless 
death of so many Jedi was disappointing, the story
needed help there.  It's as if all those Jedi weren't 
that important to the writers.