Infinite MonkeysSo says Dan Henninger in The Wall Street Journal today. "The truly brazen authors of NBC's petition to the FCC say, 'Live and uncensored programming is the hallmark of a free society.' Oh please. It is the hallmark of NBC's need to produce quarter-over-quarter growth in the business it is in." Read the whole thing, as the sages say.
Unmentioned in the column, but equally relevant to the discussion, is the mainstreaming of pornography, about which I'll have more to say soon. Henninger believes that the political rumblings against broadcast indecency won't amount to much:
As to the "decency" police, the very notion is quaint. Decency died years ago and isn't coming back. The standards of the American people have been so beaten down that no public groundswell is likely unless something is really over the top. The argument now is over a social consensus on acceptable in-decency. Not being able to say "f------ brilliant" in front of 30 million people is a small price to pay to keep the gravy trains running.
One wonders what he means by "over-the-top." I'm not sure he's correct. I think a backlash is coming. The questions are when, how, and whether the entire First Amendment will be swept away in the bargain.
Posted by Ben at April 23, 2004 12:05 PM | TrackBack