Land of the FreeWritten by Joyce C. Lock
"God Bless America" is a well-known phrase throughout land. The Bible tells us how to receive His blessings. Yet, America is running in opposite direction. By their example, our forefathers taught how to make America great. Our nation was founded "Under God" for purpose of freedom in worship; a privilege that brings God's blessings every time. Our coins are a reminder of their heart, "In God We Trust"; where God always looks first. The Ten Commandments were their moral guideline; system set up by God for a better way of life. Men believed so strongly that they fought and died for cause of America and Pilgrims risked their lives to be a part of it. Yet, today, we see a new breed of ‘would be’ forefathers who; vote their wallet instead of their conscience, dictate what we should believe to justify their lifestyle, look other way rather than stand for Godly values, wear as many faces as it takes to reach prominent positions, and attend church to make further business contacts.
| | Government Overregulation of Broadcast Content Could BackfireWritten by Terry Mitchell
Rush is right! The government's stepped up bid to regulate broadcast television content is indeed frightening. Limbaugh made his comments during one of his regular radio broadcasts last year. Those remarks were in response to FCC's crackdown on broadcast indecency and Congress' threats to hand out much larger fines to broadcasters for such violations, in wake of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at Super Bowl halftime show last February. Limbaugh is not only media personality alarmed by this intensified government scrutiny of television content. At beginning of his news program on CNN during that same time frame, Aaron Brown said he thought only thing worse than Jackson's Super Bowl debacle is fact that government is now getting involved in trying to prevent similar incidents in future. Amen, Aaron! Television, like any other business in a capitalistic society like ours, is and should be governed by marketplace and laws of supply and demand. I would love to see more family-friendly television programming. However, if there were truly a great demand for it, there would naturally be a lot more of it in existence (as well as a lot less of offensive stuff). The folks who are pushing hardest for greater government intervention to make TV more family-friendly will assert that they are in majority of viewers and listeners in U.S. However, facts belie this assertion. Of seven broadcast networks, PAX, widely recognized as most family-friendly, is last in ratings. It's not just last, it is dead last! PAX gets about one-fourth of audience of sixth place network! Even in places that don't have a local PAX affiliate, it is usually available as a cable channel. However, it's not even among 30 top-rated cable channels. On other hand, some of TV shows and cable networks with most controversial material get highest ratings. Go figure. In reality, those who are clamoring loudest for TV to "clean up its act" know they are in minority. Instead of tuning their TVs to PAX or one of other tamer channels (as I do) or even turning their TVs completely off, they go running to government to force their tastes on everyone else. Oddly enough, most of these people consider themselves conservatives. Funny, I thought conservatives disdained government intervention in favor of allowing marketplace to take its course. Where did I ever get such a silly idea? What these people seemingly don't realize is that their efforts could very well backfire on them and all rest of us. Broadcasters have generally submitted to concepts of V-chip and content ratings to help parents regulate their children’s TV viewing in their homes. After all, isn't that what all of this hoopla is about? They have also meekly accepted reasonable fines from time to time for indecent broadcasts. However, vocal minority is now demanding that FCC and Congress play hardball, i.e., impose very large and numerous fines as well as revoking licenses of stations found guilty of indecent broadcasts. In response to this demand, there are now bills circulating in both houses of Congress that would increase fines to range of $250,000 to $3 million per violation along with threatening license revocation for habitual offenders.
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