Senator Gone Wild
January 13, 2007
Down in the great state of Tennessee our elected officials are once again hard at work to take away more of our freedom. State senator Doug Jackson doesn’t like some of the commercials that air during Conan. In fact, he dislikes it so much that he’s introduced a bill that would ban cable companies $50,000 for airing ads for “obscene products” (can anyone say ambiguity?). Jackson even came up with a cute name for his bill: The Girls Gone Wild Be Gone Bill. The AP quoted Jackson as saying, "This is being interjected right into our living room; people feel like, as they sit in their living rooms, they just have to surrender; there's nothing that can be done.”
Excuse me Senator, but I believe there are a couple of things the can be done. First, the best protection against obscene material on TV isn’t the V-chip or the FCC, it’s the on/off switch. If you don’t like what you’re seeing, shut it off. Second, how about putting the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. Even in the dirty state of Ohio, these types of ads don’t start running until after midnight. This ordeal might be different if these ads were airing in the afternoon on Nickelodeon, but that obviously isn’t the case. Come on Tennessee, you already tried to take away online gambling (which didn’t work in case nobody told you yet), and now you want to jack up TV censorship. If you follow my two simple recommendations I guarantee we can solve the problem at hand.
Excuse me Senator, but I believe there are a couple of things the can be done. First, the best protection against obscene material on TV isn’t the V-chip or the FCC, it’s the on/off switch. If you don’t like what you’re seeing, shut it off. Second, how about putting the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. Even in the dirty state of Ohio, these types of ads don’t start running until after midnight. This ordeal might be different if these ads were airing in the afternoon on Nickelodeon, but that obviously isn’t the case. Come on Tennessee, you already tried to take away online gambling (which didn’t work in case nobody told you yet), and now you want to jack up TV censorship. If you follow my two simple recommendations I guarantee we can solve the problem at hand.
