Re: OT: Something to think about in the wake of the Don Imus Crucifiction



Nomen Nescio wrote:

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From: "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" <evgmsop@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

If you are really concerned about loss of freedom of speech in America, suppose you oppose the monopolization of our mass-media by private interests who only allow their OWN choice of the "news" to be heard on the major broadcast outlets! Thank God the Internet is still free, allowing us otherwise ignorant Americans access to British and Canadian news sources. (Also those of other countries, if we can read their languages.)


Amen!
I agree with almost everything you wrote.
My problem with the way things are now, is the SELECTIVITY
of, so called, free speech.
One oft used example is black rappers singing (and I use that
term loosly) about glorifying the murder of white people, and referring
to all women, especially black women, as ho's, bitches. Just try to find
ONE rap song (and I use that term loosly) without "***" in it.
The argument is that this represents black "culture" and should be allowed
as free speech.

"Black culture" be damned! Respectable black parents of my contemporaries would have responded as mine did if their kids used such language - washed their mouths out with soap, as a reminder that such talk was "dirty"! I don't listen to any form of contemporary "pop" music if I can escape it it - I purposely avoid "rap" as I do the black "sitcoms" that portray the worst and least desireable aspects of "black" culture (and seem predicated on an assumption that "black = stupid and ignorant"). (I like most of the mainstream TV series like "CSI" and "Law and Order" and "Without a Trace", because they portray all ethnic groups equally, as integral parts of a whole society - individual human beings, some good, some bad.)


The standards should be universal.

On that we agree, although I think women and ethnic minorities have reason to be more sensitive about such language than main-stream males.


the TV off and went to bed. Anyway, we wanted to entertain the kids and
were going to put on the animated "Over The Hedge" DVD for them to watch.
So I turned the TV on, which was still high volume and had defaulted back
to cable. As the TV came on, the first sentence of whatever show was on
echoed through the house as the kids sat in front of the TV........"I'LL KILL THAT F**KIN' COCKS**KER".
I learned at least 2 things at that moment.
1) I'm getting too old to dive over a table to push the "Mute" button.
2) Always change the cable channel to "The Weather Channel" before
turning on the TV if there are kids in the room.

LOL! Yeah, just because SOME people use language like that in normal conversation doesn't mean it should be set up as a model for our children!

BTW, I'm old enough to remember a time when if a man and a woman
were seen in/on a bed together, one of them MUST have a foot on the floor.

Me too! And when the male and female protagonists went into a bedroom together and shut the door behind them, we knew what was happening - we didn't NEED a brutally graphic portrayal of two people on a bed making love! (I suspect many of our fantasies were more romantic than today's films could possibly be!)

But that has nothing to do with the point I was trying to communicate.

As far as "monopolization of our mass-media by private interests who only allow their OWN choice of the "news" to be heard on the major broadcast outlets", goes. It's been that way
as long as I can remember. Cable has just opened the door to more channels
with an "agenda". But IMHO, the news hasn't been the same since Walter Cronkite retired.

Agreed, but until fairly recently, there were numerous "independent" radio stations and newspapers - most have since been sold to conglomerates whose only criterion is advertising revenue. Consequently, corporate America decides what "slant" the news should take - purely factual reporting in this country has become a thing of the past, and most people don't even recognize the fact that much of what they hear as "news" has often been politicized to conform to what the program sponsors want them to think.


Oh, and since I was accused of being a bigoted, white supremacist, hate
monger by posting this on another newsgroup. Let me add that I only wrote
the first 2 sentences.
The rest was written by Jesse Peterson.....A BLACK minister and founder
of BOND.

Understandable - I doubt whether educated people of ANY ethnicity approve of the glorification of the illiterate that seems to be the trend of popular culture nowadays. (When I was in school, we were taught that profuse use of swear words indicated a very narrow vocabulary that lacked any other means of self-expression.)
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