Responsible TV?

We all know that we are expected to (within reason) police the programmes that are viewed by our families.

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We all know that, whatever regulations are placed upon programme content at family viewing times mistakes will be made AND irresposible adults will allow vulnerable children to view.

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Tonight Thursday 10^th September in the U.K. an episode of East Enders (an East London based Soap) plumbed new depths of negativity.

Like many similar programmes it thrives on sensationalism but the scenes showing the pub owners son (who just happens to be a crack adict) threating his mother, trying to rob the cash register, setting fire

to the pub (full of wedding guests) which has a baby in an upstairs room etc etc etc.

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Screaming, fighting people trapped and trying to escape. Total mayhem.

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I know loads of families that watch this programme with the kids. The children grow up accepting these things as normal. The companies then have the cheek to say at the end “If you were affected by any of the circumstances etc etc”

Affected? Traumatised more like. No wonder we see people in need being ignored. We have been conditioned to accept that “These things happen”.

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What do you think?

Quote:

Responsible TV?

We all know that we are expected to (within reason) police the programmes that are viewed by our families.

.

We all know that, whatever regulations are placed upon programme content at family viewing times mistakes will be made AND irresposible adults will allow vulnerable children to view.

.

Tonight Thursday 10^th September in the U.K. an episode of East Enders (an East London based Soap) plumbed new depths of negativity.

Like many similar programmes it thrives on sensationalism but the scenes showing the pub owners son (who just happens to be a crack adict) threating his mother, trying to rob the cash register, setting fire

to the pub (full of wedding guests) which has a baby in an upstairs room etc etc etc.

.

Screaming, fighting people trapped and trying to escape. Total mayhem.

.

I know loads of families that watch this programme with the kids. The children grow up accepting these things as normal. The companies then have the cheek to say at the end “If you were affected by any of the circumstances etc etc”

Affected? Traumatised more like. No wonder we see people in need being ignored. We have been conditioned to accept that “These things happen”.

.

What do you think?

This is tactic of establishment. They want to keep society attuned into the low of the lowest as only such society can be controlled and manipulated. Enlightened society is a trouble as it questions and creates doubts and understands manipulation.

During second world war, countries which were occupied by Nazis, were subjected to this kind of efforts. The only entertainment were semi-porn cabarets.
Anything of cultural value was removed from life.

Disguised Nazis are running popular culture today and goverments. It is up to parents to direct their children through this maze of hate and gutter culture.

Bogdan

Hello Roger,
Oh the memories.. I remember well watching 'Coronation Street' over many years from the days of Enid Sharples, the Walkers on upwards until 11 years ago as it does not run over here. This was a program that appealed to the whole family as it was about families - their ups and downs, daily struggles etc. The characters went upstairs to bed yet the camera's never went up there until many years into the program, then it was to see a couple talking.
A General viewing censor.

I also remember watching East Enders too although this program was not as enjoyable as good ole Coronation Street. Their accents were harder to understand and the story lines were different, so I did not follow them on a regular basis.

Anyway, I do relate to your concerns and I totally agree the amount of uncensored TV that is on in Prime Time hours that are not in my opinion suitable for children to be watching.
Even some programs are not suitable for me to watch, yet I can grasp this more quickly than a child and change channels, whereby a child could be watching a seemingly innocent episode whereby Mum leaves the room to make a cup of tea etc and the scene on TV suddenly changes tension in a moment. I have seen this happen myself although with moves often the music will warn you when something frightening/tension etc is coming up but I have still be caught jumping in fright.

Any of these type of episodes whereby there is violence, bad language etc that are not suitable for children do need to have verbal and written warning before the program starts.

I know there is violence, bad language etc in peoples homes everyday and many children are subject to this - yet I believe that our entertainment should be less violent and more focused on 'Entertaining' than the 'Shock value' that movies, TV are doing these days.

It is very sad that our Values have been reduced so low that people laugh and enjoy young TV character children speaking back to their TV parent character with such insolence, back talking and rudeness while the live audience laugh and think it is so funny.

Amanda

I do think it is really unfortunate what we have come to view as acceptable viewing. I saw Machete the other day and a parent was there with his 7 year old - not an appropriate movie for somebody of that age. The violence and sex levels that are shown by tvs, movies, etc to younger kids is often unacceptable. And yet the inspirational, cultural things are lacking. Plot lines get thinner, flash backs to things we saw less than 2 minutes ago occur (can we not remember back that far?) and we are hit so obviously over the head with things they want us to figure out that the sense of mystery and drama is gone. So if you have kids, it leaves you needing to turn the tv off and going to the library for books and searching out for cultural festivals and free concerts (sometimes the local opera sings at a library conference room for an hour here) or going to a park or doing some other activity that is not so media focused. Basically, if you're a parent, you have to disconnect from the media as much as you can to give your kids some other alternatives. Even if you're not a parent, for your own sanity, you have to do that too, so you're not completely inundated with mindless junk. Much of it is not worth watching anyway and until it starts losing the ad revenues, it seems it won't make much of a difference to the companies. - Rob

So I take it that you believe the state can control your kids or grandkids better than yourself or your children with children?

Do you really think the State is a better parent than yourself? You have parental control and controls available to you. This what they want you to do, throw up your hands and give up your God Given right to what is best for your kids. The more you allow regulation by State, the more freedom and personal liberty your give up.

I think it is high time for the government and social engineers (Eugenicists) to get out my business. Do their job they were elected to do. Roger, censorship never helped the free man, it seeks to control him and his views on everything. Do not be lulled into sheeplehood.

Take responsibility and quit allowing the State, the Czars, the wannabe dictators control the future of this world. Free markets, Free thinkers and the true visionary believe that PERSONAL Responsibility and adherence to the covenants of mankind, that we all have hardcoded into our being by the creator.

Many speak of listening to your little voice, some call it heart, others call it a consciousness to guide your actions, toward yourself and others.

Governments role in society is to protect mankind's Creator bestowed rights.

In short, if the damn show offends you do not complain about the content to some government regulator.

Turn the channel, do not sit there and watch the show. Complain to the advertisers and program director. Stop watching the show and when their ratings fall due to the poor content they will change it.

Use your voice to do more than appoint your personal responsibilities and rights to someone else. Stand up and be a man not a sheep or a Wild pig lapping up the free food.

FC Expert Blog

To Catch a Wild Pig - A Parable About Society That Offers Valuable Lessons for Leaders

BY FC Expert Blogger Norman WolfeWed Oct 22, 2008

A friend of mine sent me a wonderful piece called “Catching the Wild Pig”. For those of you who have never heard this parable (and I hadn’t until now), here it is:

A chemistry professor at a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again.

You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat; you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.

Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.

I found this an extremely fascinating and interesting parable and one I can totally endorse. For we must guard carefully not to fall into the trap of being so dependent on the government that we lose our sense of responsibility for our live and even worse, the very spark of life.

Yet, this also brings me to the recognition that we are caught in a rather interesting dilemma are we not. While I agree with the “trap” of the wild pig and the problems that presents, we are also experiencing what happens when you let the pigs (pun intended) run wild (the effect of too much de-regulation for example) and the effects it has on our society overall. – Anyone enjoying the financial crisis we are in? So the real question, (and I believe the true answer) lies in how do we find the right balance.

The trouble we have in our political system is we keep running back and forth between taming the wild pigs and letting them run wild. Wildness is good for creativity, entrepreneurialism, and the like. You want the free flow of energy to stimulate new innovation. And yet when you have unbounded flow of energy you have chaos, which then has to correct itself. As we learn to work with the powerful flow of societal energies, I believe we can learn to modulate the unbounded flow of energy while not reaching the point of constraining it to where we are limiting its flow.

When are we ever going to get a leader that understands the need for balance and stop with the rhetoric of polar opposite making one side wrong and the other right (and I don’t care which side we are talking about). Is it not time for us to have true leadership in this country, and in our companies. Leadership that can connect deeply with the soul of the entity (be it our country or our companies) and guide the energy that flows from there in a balanced way so that we are contributing effectively to our society and our planet?

Norman Wolife, President/CEO, Quantum Leaders, Inc nwolfe@quantumleaders.com

www.quantumleadersblog.com

http://twitter.com/normanwolfe