Censorship @ MindSay

Just saw this story (and a number of variations):

FCC fines ABC over 'NYPD Blue'; network to appeal

LOS ANGELES, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission on Friday said it plans to fine the Walt Disney Co's ABC network $1.4 million for airing an episode of "NYPD Blue" in 2003 that showed a woman's nude buttocks.

The company said it opposes the fine and plans to appeal.

In a notice filed on Friday, the agency said 52 television ABC stations in the Central and Mountain time zones had aired the scene at 9 p.m. in violation of federal restrictions against broadcasting "obscene material" between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The agency said it received "numerous complaints" about the scene, in which a young boy walks in on a nude woman about to take a shower.

See http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN2530635020080126 for the story in full.

A couple of things came to mind:

* This is a complaint for a show which aired close to five years ago? A show which aired before the whole Janet Jackson incident with the Superbowl?  Nice job, FCC. Way to strike while the iron is hot...

* NYPD Blue had been known for its racy rear shots for years at this point.  The reason this one was singled out, apparently, was because of the "young boy" who walked in.  I didn't watch the episode, but there were no sexual connotations involving the young boy.  The subplot involved the trials and tribulations of a single parent dating while trying to raise a kid. We're also not talking about an extended camera shot here -- it was over in a flash.

* If you're watching NYPD Blue (which, during 2003, used the mandatory TV ratings system -- which meant it could easily be blocked by televisions with the V-Chip installed (which was installed in all TVs for years at that point), you pretty much knew what you were getting into.  If not, the disclaimer at the beginning advising viewer discretion should have helped steer potentially offended people away.  But let's say that someone accidentally stumbled upon that episode of NYPD Blue by chance without the faintest idea what would appear. A buttock! Oh no! Is it really that offensive? Personally, I have two of them.  I simply don't see what the big deal is.

* No. I do see precisely what the big deal is.  Groups like Donald Wildmon's American Family Association instructs its members to blindly send copies of form letters to the FCC en masse to purify the airwaves of certain things they find objectionable.  And the FCC caves to that pressure. And why not? It's giving some of the people what they want while gaining revenue.  Who could argue with that?

Well, ABC is arguing with that. They are appealing the fine and will likely settle for a smaller amount. Not that I have any pity for ABC/Disney which is doing fine economically compared to much of the nation. But still -- this shouldn't be something the FCC should bring up five years after the fact to drum up Republican coffieurs.

Oh -- and one more thing:

* What's more offensive -- someone's bare butt before she steps into the shower, or the droves of people shot in the head by Jack Bauer or any of the other characters on "24?" Where the FUCK has the AFA and the FCC been to combat the violence that apparently has been acceptable while they've been allegedly attempting to "protect the children" from anatomy that all of them have?

Thanks, FCC. Thanks for keeping those airwaves safe.

Although I didn't blog much while in Spain, it would have been infinitely easier there. Blogging in China is a real headache. Over the last 2.5 years in China, I have witnessed a noticeable decline in Internet usability. Maybe it is just me, maybe it is not. It just seems that more websites than ever are blocked. Proxy servers that were usable in the past are now blocked. (TOR still works most of the time!) I hear that YouTube will be blocked permanently soon.

Wordpress, of course, continues to be blocked. Using TOR to access my blog and update posts is my only option, but it has gotten really slow lately. All that waiting around for pages to load stifles my creativity!

I've got a solution in the works. I've purchased my own domain name and web space. Soon my blog will be transferred from wordpress.com to its own home. Of course my long term plan is to leave China. Knowing how my life works, however, I may leave China and end up in a country where Internet censorship exists, as well.

As some of you know this video deals with an act that has passed the house and is now being debated in the senate. If anyone has heard differently let me know. This act, which will pass probably because of the name is essentially another version of the net neutrality laws and in addition classifies people such as yours truly as homegrown terrorists.

I believe that this is primarily a response to the growing 9/11 truth movement online, and will allow censorship of such material as being terrorist material which radicalizes the populace. Essentially ensuring that we live in a closed, dissent free society.

I find it interesting to note that in the video, one of the senators/lawyers, whatever he is, dick in a suit, asks if they are doing enough with fake websites to create confusion on the internet. Note that he did not say anything about getting truth out, he said they were trying to confuse the information out there. When the world is full of lies, you cut through the lies with truth, but where you find truth, you cut through it with lies and deception.

Besides the altered plane videos from the supposedly 9/11 truth related movements such as the head of the snake, there are probably countless such pieces of disinformation. When the government creates a straw man argument, they go all the way. They just don't take an unrelated argument and knock it down to discredit you, they actually create the websites and fake evidence to superficially back up these straw man arguments to draw in people who then acquire false easily discredited beliefs which can be used to discredit them as a whole.

This act is vitally important, not just because this is the first step to really start putting Americans in cells for dissenting, but because the internet is the last source of non corporate media we have access to. If we lose that, there really never will be a chance of the truth reaching most people.

And if you're counting on the commercial media to keep us informed and take care of us, don't. The commercial news does not exist to serve YOU. Any relatively objective person can figure out that if a news station has commercials from the pharmaceutical industry, it effects how they cover health care, and if they have car commercials, it effects how they cover the automotive industry, and so on.

You are not the customer of the News. These companies which advertise are the customers of the news. They pay for their airtime, and the news provides a service for them.  They create a uncritical unquestioning public kept asleep and distracted by violence and sex, ensuring their soft spongy minds are ready to absorb whatever shiny new thing is going to make their hair grow and their dick bigger. 

The news is the provider, the companies are the customer, and do you know what you are?

You are the product.