The Reign of Prudishness

If the Republicans' desire to change America's tax laws to hurt groups likely to support to Democrats was not enough, they are out to establish their Republic of Virtue and are now gunning for our depraved culture, too:

US COMMUNICATION watchdog the FCC is apparently so pleased with its moral crusade following the Janet Jackson boob it now wants to purge what it calls immorality from the interweb and cable channels.

Apparently acting with support from both Republicans and Democrats, the FCC is poised to get even more aggressive about enforcing moral values throughout broadcasting. So far the FCC has been really good at purging swear words and sex from telly by chucking huge fines at the broadcasters. The net result of its actions have been that viewers have been switching to cable in droves.

Some analysts think that this is behind the FCC's move to expanding its jurisdiction to encompass the alternatives, cable TV, satellite TV and radio and the internet.

Just wonderful. I really, really hope the Democrats as a party don't try to go after the moral values crowd by signing off on this. It will be very difficult for the Democrats to out theocrat the fundementalists of today's Republican Party and it would send the wrong message for the Democrats too roll over so easily after the election. And of course trying to censor the sattelite and cable is a terrible idea. These mediums are not the same as broadcast, which comes into every home. If parents want to protect their impressionable darlings from four letter words and nipples of doom they can simply block these channels or not buy these services. Regulating children's exposure to objectionable material is the role of parents, not the government. Speaking of which, this issue provides an excellent opportunity for the Democrats to engange in anti-government populism, the merits of which explored in this post at NewDonkey.com.