I am one of those rare people in the United States. I watch very little television. When I do watch, I typically prefer sports, or educational channels like The History Channel, The Learning Channel, or The Discovery Channel. However, I occasionally get sucked into watching a movie or regular programming. It typically happens right after a sporting event that I had been watching. That very thing happened recently. I had just finished watching the NASCAR race in Michigan and decided to leave the TV on for noise while I checked e-mail. Just so happens that one of my favorite movies of all time, Lethal Weapon, came on. I decided to watch it. The longer the movie ran, the more aggravated I became.
Specifically, what bugged me was the fact that they dubbed over the curse words. Now I understand that it is broadcast television, and it was being shown in the middle of the day. Protect people from language they would just as soon not hear, or have their kids hear, right? But I noticed they didn’t have a problem showing Mel and Danny blowing the crap out of people with their pistols at 2:30 in the afternoon.
Some would say that this type of censorship is just “responsible” broadcasting. I don’t buy it, and I don’t understand the logic. The censors don’t mind little kids seeing someone get shot up, but they don’t want them hearing words on TV that most have probably heard on the school playground by the time they are 12.
My personal opinion is, if you are going to show that type of show, you should: a) Show it after 8PM, b) Be sure to warn your viewers that it contains language, violence, or nudity, if any, c) Leave the damned content alone, And d) Rely on the viewers to know how to operate their remotes and change the channel if they find something offensive.
There are a lot of things on TV that I find offensive too, namely the nightly news. The lead off story most nights is usually murder, rape, kidnapping, or the like. I don’t like it, and I don’t watch the news because of it. I get all of my news off of the internet; that way I choose. Offensive programming is our responsibility as adults and parents to police, not the networks. Unfortunately, the television networks have correctly made the assumption that parents use TV as a babysitter and pay very little, if any, attention to what their kids are watching. They censor it yes, but they do a piss poor job of it. Ask yourself how many kids are sitting around watching the news without their parents knowledge. Ask yourself which is worse, killing or cursing. As a parent that does screen what his child watches, it pisses me off to have what little television I do watch spoon-fed to me by a bunch of censors who completely missed the boat. Leave my damned TV alone!!!