Tuesday, May 02, 2006

New Survey: Americans Want Moral Majority To Stay Away From Their TV

A tiny, tiny percentage of TV viewers organized by the far right manage to put the fear of God into the major networks -- the most ludicrous recent example occuring when Fox blurred out the butt of an animated baby on a rerun of "Family Guy." Now an Arbitron survey states the obvious: most people think cable channels like MTV and Comedy Central should be able to show "whatever programming they please." Premium pay channels like HBO should be even freer. (Though what could be freer than "whatever programming they please" I'm not quite certain.) It's pretty straightforward: cable provides a wealth of family programming that's available 24 hours a day via Nickeloeon, PBS, Discovery and countless other channels. It also provides free and easy tools that let parents block out any channels they don't want their kid accessing, like MTV or ABC Family (so they can block "The 700 Club"). The free market works great; government should butt out.

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