Ice Hockey Players
09-08-2006, 18:28
A recent broadcast of a charity concert across @@NAME@@ was marred by what network executives called a "clothing error" that left a popular female performer topless on stage and on camera for 45 seconds before anyone knew what was wrong. The networks are trying to save face, but groups are still up in arms.
The Debate
1. "Never again, not for the children!" is the rallying cry of Mothers United to Stop Improper Content. The leader, a mother of twin 10-year-olds, tells you, "My children watched that charity concert because @@RANDOMNAME@@ is their favorite singer! Imagine their horror when that brazen temptress took her top off for all to see! This cannot stand! Indecency laws must be put on the books and enforced with heavy fines for those who ignore them! Keep people from dressing like this, swearing, and beating each other senseless, and while we're at it, stop those game producers and movie producers from all this too! It's all sickening!"
[effect]all forms of media are thoroughly cleansed of lewd content
2. "The moms are right, but it doesn't go far enough, I say!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, your cousin's accountant's father's sous chef's pet monkey's trainer's conspiracy-obsessed uncle. "The problem isn't the media. The problem is with the people who demand this filth! We need to crack down on lewd behavior in public as well! Cops can be sent out to write tickets for dressing too skimpy or cursing in public, and all this can be a matter of public record. If we hit people where it really hurts, the public cleans up its act in no time, and nothing like this ever happens again!"
[effect]the government is effectively censoring real life
3. "All right, this has gone too far!" chimes in @@RANDOMNAME@@, a libertarian evangelist. "You can't stop people from being who they are! The media's a reflection of this, and I'll have you know that the concert was very highly-rated, especially after that incident! It's time to open up the airwaves and the silver screen to anyone for anything! A few naughty words and topless women is a small price to pay for freedom of the media, and for some, it's hardly a price at all! This government needs to back out of our lives; there's a reason I won't pay my taxes to...wait, forget I said anything about that."
[effect]even children's television shows are littered with curse words and scantily-dressed sex symbols
4. "It's gone too far indeed, but I have a solution," you hear over your cell phone from @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of First Imperial Systems Home Entertainment Service. "These broadcasters need to be banned from broadcasting and have all programming go through private companies like my own. We have all kinds of features that let parents control what their kids watch, so if parents want sanitized kids shows, they get them, and if bachelors want explicit programming and action shows, they can have them. Besides, it's time the people of @@NAME@@ would realize it's just a matter of a hundred @@CURRENCY@@s a month to fund my vacation home...I mean, enjoy quality entertainment whenever they want it."
[effect]people pay big bucks for every form of entertainment known to humanity
The Debate
1. "Never again, not for the children!" is the rallying cry of Mothers United to Stop Improper Content. The leader, a mother of twin 10-year-olds, tells you, "My children watched that charity concert because @@RANDOMNAME@@ is their favorite singer! Imagine their horror when that brazen temptress took her top off for all to see! This cannot stand! Indecency laws must be put on the books and enforced with heavy fines for those who ignore them! Keep people from dressing like this, swearing, and beating each other senseless, and while we're at it, stop those game producers and movie producers from all this too! It's all sickening!"
[effect]all forms of media are thoroughly cleansed of lewd content
2. "The moms are right, but it doesn't go far enough, I say!" shouts @@RANDOMNAME@@, your cousin's accountant's father's sous chef's pet monkey's trainer's conspiracy-obsessed uncle. "The problem isn't the media. The problem is with the people who demand this filth! We need to crack down on lewd behavior in public as well! Cops can be sent out to write tickets for dressing too skimpy or cursing in public, and all this can be a matter of public record. If we hit people where it really hurts, the public cleans up its act in no time, and nothing like this ever happens again!"
[effect]the government is effectively censoring real life
3. "All right, this has gone too far!" chimes in @@RANDOMNAME@@, a libertarian evangelist. "You can't stop people from being who they are! The media's a reflection of this, and I'll have you know that the concert was very highly-rated, especially after that incident! It's time to open up the airwaves and the silver screen to anyone for anything! A few naughty words and topless women is a small price to pay for freedom of the media, and for some, it's hardly a price at all! This government needs to back out of our lives; there's a reason I won't pay my taxes to...wait, forget I said anything about that."
[effect]even children's television shows are littered with curse words and scantily-dressed sex symbols
4. "It's gone too far indeed, but I have a solution," you hear over your cell phone from @@RANDOMNAME@@, CEO of First Imperial Systems Home Entertainment Service. "These broadcasters need to be banned from broadcasting and have all programming go through private companies like my own. We have all kinds of features that let parents control what their kids watch, so if parents want sanitized kids shows, they get them, and if bachelors want explicit programming and action shows, they can have them. Besides, it's time the people of @@NAME@@ would realize it's just a matter of a hundred @@CURRENCY@@s a month to fund my vacation home...I mean, enjoy quality entertainment whenever they want it."
[effect]people pay big bucks for every form of entertainment known to humanity