DonovanMedia

Looking at conspiracy cinema

2011-01-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

This may be a belated start to a new year of blogging, but I am just able to put a new link in to the amazon.com page for my forthcoming book, CONSPIRACY FILMS.

Due this June 30th from McFarland publishers, the book will be one of the most comprehensive histories of conspiracy theory films ever written. Tracing a decade-by-decade chronicle of some of the most pervasive conspiracy theories in modern American culture, the book will then look at the films they helped inspire.

From JFK to Roswell, alien abductions, men in black, secret societies like the Masons and the Illuminati, I document our culture's most colorful fears and the movies they turn up in.

Interview with my favorite person...

2010-11-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

I'm quite grateful for the very cool Nigel P. Bird for giving me the opportunity to join some fantastic talent on his blog and talk about my writing an upcoming book about conspiracy theory films.

Nigel let me and some great writers, like former Culture Wars guests Joelle Charbonneau, Hilary Davidson, Angela Choi, and Steve Weddle, talk about our work in a format where we pretend to interview ourselves.

Check it out right here.

www.nigelpbird.blogspot.com

Skating Around the Law

2010-09-19T06:42:00.000-07:00

With the return of a new season of my radio show, Culture Wars, I am pledging regular updates of this blog as well. Following a summer that has been a bit too eventful, brilliant opinions and commentary will be returning to this blog!

The most important opinion for this week, however, is the need to check out our first author interview on Culture Wars. On September 23, 12:00 pm Eastern Time, we are talking live to Joelle Charbonneau about her debut mystery novel, Skating Around the Law. Joelle will discuss how she brings a humorous edge to the cozy mystery, shaking up some of the staid conventions of the genre.

Published by St. Martin's Press, Joelle's book will be available in all bookstores on September 28. In the meantime, check out her web page right here, and read an excerpt of Skating Around the Law.

Culture Wars, of course, will be once again live every Thursday and available on podcasts at http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/

Yes!!!!!!!!!!! Sanity in broadcast regulation!!!!

2010-07-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

And let me say it again, "Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!" Broadcast regulation seems to have taken a small step into the 21st century at last with an appeals court striking down the FCC's indecency regulations as being unconstitutional. Outstanding!! Check out the story right here.

For anyone with a high enough IQ and enough of an attention span to read a simple sentence in the First Amendment, the idea that the FCC censoring the broadcast airwaves was unconstitutional should have been obvious. Of course, IQ requirements would exclude people like the general membership of groups like the Parents Television Council or Focus on the Family any such fundamentalist, ultra-right wing nutbags. So much fun can probably be had today and over the next few days visiting and reading their web pages and blogs and seeing them make even bigger fools of themselves than usual as they claim that "families are under attack."

The only people who have been under attack until now were Americans who knew how to raise their kids and how to manage their families, families that believed in the fundamental values of freedom of speech and expression and the arts, people besieged by gangs of Puritanical crazies who like to force their values on others.

Just like Barry Goldwater so brilliantly said, "You can't legislate morality," you can't legislate taste either, and you have no constitutional right to censor curse words or sex or violence in broadcasting either. Thank God the courts are showing some sanity at last with decisions like this.

What mental illness is Brent Bozell suffering from?

2010-06-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

In light of the most recent rampage of the psycho FCC - prompted by the Parents Television Council's complaints about Fox's American Dad cartoon - I somehow got in the mood to read some more idiocy. Thus, for the first time in a while, I checked out some of the recent essays by PTC and Media Research Center head honcho, Brent Bozell.

Now, you see, the thing about Brent Bozell columns is that they're kind of like daytime soap operas. You can miss a number of them and not really miss anything new. They're all essentially the same, especially when he's complaining that somehow society's mores seem to change over time. At one point Bozell woke up and noticed that we weren't living in the 1950s anymore. So, of course, he complains about this a lot and throws around a lot of childish insult words like "smut," "trash," "sleaze," indecent," and "vile."

But the most recent little hissy fit by Bozell is about the musical TV comedy "Glee." You can check it out here, on the web page of the Media Research Center.

Just scroll down to the bottom of the screen and you'll see his piece, titled "The Glee Agenda." It's a play on the right wing paranoid phrase "gay agenda." Get it? Gay agenda? Glee agenda? If you look at the other Bozell columns, you'll see more of examples of his impish wit.

But reading this piece made me wonder what a mental health professional would make of the twisted mind that wrote the article. Bozell apparently feels like the producers of Glee are a bunch of left wing bullies who unfairly like to beat up on social conservatives. These social conservatives, you see, are really nice and decent folks...aside from the fact that they would like to force certain Americans into second-class-citizen status simply for what they do in the privacy of their own bedrooms. Thus, the article goes on and lists all the examples of Glee's meanness and rudeness and all the examples of their persecution of the Christian right. I was certain that at one point reference to the Christian diet of Roman lions would come up.

Just how exactly does Bozell find the audacity to complain about the mean satire of Glee after the sort of prolific name-calling he's been busy with in his editorial pieces? Just look around on the very same page and see Bozell referring to CBS as a "toilet network," to FOX as "television's dung pile," to the old FX show "Nip/Tuck" as "vile," and just browse the rest of his postings for all his sophomoric insults. But his work, of course, is nothing as terrible and intolerant as Glee making a joke about Sarah Palin, is it?

If Brent Bozell truly can't understand what prompts certain TV producers to take shots at social conservatives - especially in light of the censorship campaigns the PTC has been engaged in recently - PTC members should take some of those funds their donors lavish on them and help pay for Bozell's psychiatric care.

By the way, it's disappointing that the Media Research Center page no longer gives the readers of Bozell's columns the opportunity to offer feedback. I wonder why he would not be interested in getting some commentary. But since the PTC loves to mail complaints so much, here are a couple of e-mail addresses at the MRC people can send their own complaints to:

contact.cmi@mediaresearch.org

dgainor@mediaresearch.org

mphilbin@mediaresearch.org

craezler@mediaresearch.org

How long will FCC keep caving in to home-grown terror?

2010-06-07T05:34:00.000-07:00

Having neglected the blog for a little while now, I must get back into the swing of things here with commentary on yet another reason why the FCC needs to be, once and for all, declared as an unconstitutional entity. Or, at the very least, the specific powers of the FCC to regulate expression in the broadcast media must go.

The FCC has gotten around to fining the FOX network for a January 13th episode of their successful cartoon series American Dad where a series of jokes were made that could be interpreted as a man masturbating a horse. Again, folks, this was an episode where double entendres suggested sexual activity between a man and a horse.

Of course, the people who got outraged over this was America's own home grown cultural terror network, the Parents Television Council. They bombarded the FCC with their complaint letters again, and once again the commission rolls over for this group of thugs and takes censorious action against broadcasting.

What I would love to hear the PTC explain, however, is what sort of a heinous effect they see coming as a result of this episode. Will we now have an epidemic of impressionable children going out and masturbating horses? Media effects are usually the PTC's dread fears. They are usually harping about the horrific EFFECTS of video games and violent movies and TV shows - with a shocking lack of understanding of the concepts of causality and basic social science research, as this blog had repeatedly demonstrated. So is this what the PTC seriously believes?

I would love to see them proven right!!

I am so eager to see the next epidemic of children masturbating horses.

For any members of the PTC reading this, this is an open invitation to prove me wrong!!

True Crime on Culture Wars

2010-04-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

The latest episode of Culture Wars - originally broadcast on April 22 on WSPC radio - is now available for podcast download right here.

Our special guest was WRAL reporter and true crime author Amanda Lamb. Her latest book, The Evil Next Door: The Untold Story of a Killer Undone by DNA, has just been released. If you are interested in high tech detective work and the hunt for an elusive serial killer, be sure and check this one out.

And, of course, check out the next episode of Culture Wars live this Thursday from noon until 1:00, EST!

A Breakthrough in Seismology

2010-04-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

You might not need too much time to wrap your mind around this story. Check it out here. An Iranian cleric has just declared the true cause of earthquakes: promiscuous women who dress too provocatively.

OK, so not so surprising, right? Ultra fundamentalist religious zealots tend to say loony things like this. The Iranian theocracy is not made up of too many folks who tend to say too many intelligent, rational things about natural phenomena in the world.

Except doesn't this guy sound like someone who might have a good time hanging out with Pat Robertson?

Kinda disturbing, isn't it?

Don't deprive the Russian mob of future hitmen...

2010-04-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

…by adopting all these kids from Russian orphanages!

So, does that sound a bit harsh? It’s just a thought I had after reading the latest about the case of the Tennessee woman who adopted, then returned, a Russian orphan. Check out the article right here.

Apparently more information is coming out about what happened between this boy, Artyom Savelyev, and his mother and what seemed to have prompted her to return the kid to Russia. According to the woman’s mother, her daughter had been living in fear of her adopted son. The kid was given to violent tantrums and rages when criticized or subjected to the most basic rules and regulations. Apparently he was given to screaming at, spitting on, attacking, hitting, and threatening his mother. The kid would regularly threaten to kill his mother and burn her house down.

Now that Artyom has been sent back to the homeland, the Russian adoption authorities are expressing outrage and they have stopped all adoptions by Americans. Some good old-fashioned America-bashing is, no doubt, soon to follow. Just keep an eye on this story and see if I’m right. We will very soon start hearing the propaganda about the pampered Americans who want it easy, want to take perfect kids, and who can’t deal with the realities of international adoption.

What some American might not be able to deal with is the adoption of certifiable sociopaths.

So let’s take a look at this case from a starker, more politically incorrect – yet honest and realistic – perspective. Realistic perspectives can often be a bit unpleasant and politically incorrect, after all. The fact is that Americans are the most generous and altruistic people in the world. Every time a volcano blows or a hurricane hits or an earthquake or fire or flood or a tsunami wrecks some part of the world, the first people sending in the donations are Americans. The people sending in most of the donations are Americans. The first relief workers in all these disaster areas will be Americans. Most of the food sent to refugees in war-torn African countries is sent by Americans (to be stolen by local war lords and corrupt governments). When Americans see the little orphaned babies in Russia or China or Romania or any of these impoverished countries, they will get teary-eyed, they will think of Pastor Jones at Sunday services telling them to do their part for social justice, they will listen to Madonna and Angelina Jolie, and they will rush to adopt one of these kids. In return, what they stand a good chance of winding up with is a nightmare visited on them by the dishonest adoption services of those countries.

The fact is that many of those foreign orphaned babies have been abandoned by the lowest dregs of those societies. Perhaps the outraged Russian adoption service didn’t mention that little Artyom’s mother might have been a drunken, drug-addicted prostitute who got knocked up by a john in a back alley and that she probably shot heroin throughout her entire pregnancy. The sort of impulsive, violent behavior described in the story is perfectly symptomatic of the children of drug users. Furthermore, the behavior sounds like that of the perfect, textbook-case sociopath in his early years. Once little Artyom got a few years older, he just might have killed his mother in her sleep and torched the house.

The real villains in this piece are not the Americans who reached out to help abandoned kids, but the corrupt Russian adoption services who can’t give accurate medical histories of the children they placed with adoptive parents. There are a lot of orphaned and abandoned children in the U.S. who need adoption as well, and a system that is honest when it comes to “special needs” children. Americans looking to adopt should start at home.

So the woman who sent Artyom back to mother Russia, given the emerging facts of this case, did nothing wrong. Perhaps she saved her own life.

And little Artyom might one day grow up and have a successful career in the Russian Mafia.

Just a bit strange...

2010-04-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

OK, this was a pretty lengthy New York Times article I still can't quite sense of: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/dining/07camera.html

If you have an uncontrollable compulsion to photograph food and post it online, you might want to check it.

I'm especially unsure of what to make of the psychobable explaining it.

Listen to shows about good books!

2010-03-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

After the atrociously long time I've been spending away from this blog, I needed to update with some new information about...radio!

New episodes of Culture Wars radio have been archived at http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/, including last week's discussion with award-winning science fiction author Elizabeth Bear about the serious side of SF. She just came out with a new book as well, Chill , which is well worth a read.

Plus, give the show a listen and let us know what you think about a book by Jersey Shore stars Ronnie and J-Woww! Recently someone asked me if that was some sort of an early April Fools day practical joke. Unfortunately it's not.

As promised...

2010-03-04T13:43:00.001-08:00

A new episode of Culture Wars is ready for listening at www.culturewars.libsyn.com

Listen to me and Ernabel Demillo interview crime writer Steve Weddle about mysteries, thrillers, true crime that's too spectacular to believe, and just what exactly is "flash fiction."

And don't forget to e-mail the show and let us know what you think about a new "Tiger" app for your iPhone that lets you erase all signs of a text message when you're having an affair. And should school kids be celebrating O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman, and Ru Paul during Black History Month??

Chime in by e-mailing us at wspcradio@gmail.com

Mother Nature's war on Wars

2010-02-25T04:53:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, an East Coast storm that's supposed to turn into a "blockbuster" and something "paralizing" to the area is creating a havoc on the WSPC broadcasat studios.

But Culture Wars will definitely return for a new episode once we're rescued and from all this snow, and definitely on March 4, featuring special guest author Steve Weddle. Steve will be talking about crime writing and the love for the dark side in gritty noir thrillers, crime reporting, and he'll tell us all about flash fiction.

In the meantime, you can also check out some of his writing at http://www.dosomedamage.blogspot.com/

More Culture Wars on tap!

2010-02-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's episode of my Culture Wars radio show is available on podcast now, so give it a listen by going to www.culturewars.libsyn.com

Our guest was James D. Agresti, author of Rational Conclusions, discussing whether or not one can prove the objective truth of the Bible. Definitely check it out and see if he's right or not.

And you can't miss our discussion of cat cuisine!! Would you try a delicious helping of cat stew?

Teenagers should have sex!

2010-02-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

So the headline got your attention. Cool!

What I am actually getting at with this post is a slightly spoilerish comment on the new romantic comedy Valentine's Day. I try to keep from giving anything major away about the film, but the main point of this piece will deal with several characters on the end of the movie. So if you want to know absolutely nothing about the end of the film, don't read any further than this paragraph. Go catch the flick, then come back and read the rest of the post.

So, where were we?

This big, all-star-cast romantic comedy came out over the Valentine's Day weekend and the movie is pretty much what I expected from it, except for a very peculiar turn of events on the end. Or, perhaps not so peculiar given the times we're living in and the growing cultural influence - or growing cultural threat!!! - of some of my favorite people in the world...you know, all the wing-nuts I've been complaining about here in regards to Howard Stern and the meaning of a study on the sex lives of teen boys.

Now as I understand it, the film is not getting positive reviews for the most part. Some reviews I've read, like one on the Ain't It Cool page, were downright vitriolic. The reviewer said it inspired hatred in him and the desire to shoot baby ducks...or something to that effect. And yes, I agree, the film was not great at all. It was mostly predictable and formulaic. Maybe aside from two characters - a traveler on a plane who strikes up a conversation with Julia Roberts, and a little kid who has a crush on someone in his class - you can predict exactly what will happen to every single character. But, come on, this is a romantic comedy called Valentine's Day, released on the Valentine's Day weekend. Who's expecting an Oscar-worthy picture here full of "very important performances?" Nobody! This is the sort of film a lot of guys will be dragged to by girlfriends and wives. Just take it for what it is. But then there is that ending...

OK, again, SPOILERS coming up...

The plot of the film follows a huge cast of characters and their trials and tribulations on Valentine's Day. It basically has two types of characters, the ones who think they're happily in love and looking forward to a great Valentine's Day, and ones who are single, with a bad track record of relationships, and who detest the holiday. Of course, the ones who think their relationships are perfect suddenly face some serious and painful crises, and the cynical ones wind up finding true love. And among all these characters we have two teenage couples. What happens to both these couples on the end is kind of mind-boggling.

One couple is kind of average and awkward, yet in love and planning on losing their virginity together on Valentine's Day during their lunch break. The other couple - pictured above, teen superstars of the moment, Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift - are the buff track star and his hot, but slightly ditzy, dancer girlfriend. Although it's not stated clearly, the track star and the dancer might also be heading for major sex at some point on Valentine's Day. The girl, in fact, drags a giant bear around with her for most of the movie (the gift from the runner), shows it off to everyone, and gushes about what a great guy her boyfriend is and how much they're in love. Watching this, you think there's going to be some major sex action going on between them before V-Day is over. Except there's no sex! Neither of the teenage couples winds up having sex!!

What happens instead, is that the girl from the average couple gets a gentle lecture from the grandfather of a kid she's babysitting about the importance of waiting until they're older, until the time is right, etc. and so forth. A very ABC Family Channel moment. Naturally, the girl takes the speech to heart, tells her boyfriend that they should wait, and they wind up just "making out" instead. Making out, of course, is just kissing without going all the way, mind you. And the guy almost looks relieved that his girlfriend doesn't want to do it after all. As a matter of fact, he appears to behave very much like the majority of the teenage boys in that study the Parents Television Council PR spokesperson never read.

Now, I can kind of see this happening. There's nothing wrong with this.

Except the hot runner/dancer couple don't have sex either! That, on the other hand, makes no sense. In fact, up until the end of the film, I thought that they probably had sex already, and probably had a LOT of sex. There is one scene where they're interviewed for a V-Day fluff news piece by a camera crew and they're so horny they can barely keep their hands off each other. Now despite this scene, I can somehow kind of buy that they maybe haven't yet had sex. Maybe they, too, were planning on it and preparing for V-Day. But for them to suddenly stay all proper and chaste and Parents TV Council, Focus on the Family-approved just makes no sense. I mean, just go back and see the film again and watch those two characters up until their final scene in the movie. Those two are so hot for each other that there's no way they would not screw that night.

As a side note, it's also bizarre that for a movie called Valentine's Day, a movie that's all about love, one that's full of a lot of actors who've made some pretty steamy films in the past and whose fans might expect some pretty steamy stuff from again...you know, in a film called frigging Valentine's Day...there's NO SEX!!!! Nobody has sex in this film! And the Anne Hathaway character's phone sex doesn't count.

But back to the teenagers. How in the hell does this film end up with neither of these couples in bed and having loud, raunchy sex until all hours of the morning? Whatever happened to the evil, immoral Hollywood film makers out to corrupt the values of America, all on the urging of Satan's whisper in their ears?

It's perhaps because that the evil, immoral, libertine Hollywood is not as radical as bunch of Puritanical control freaks like the religious conservative far right claim. It's perhaps because Hollywood is really timid to its core, especially when a band of regressive, demented yahoos who like to threaten boycotts and letter-writing campaigns when every single film or TV program is not a cartoon about baby Jesus or Kirk Cameron kissing his real wife start writing complaints every time "hell" or "damn" is said on TV. Maybe someone got worried about that the film would become too "controversial" if teenagers actually had sex...even off-screen sex.

Could this film not have stayed "moral" if maybe one teenage couple had sex whereas the other one decided to listen to the old folks and wait? Like maybe if the film aspired to be more complex than a Disney Channel family sitcom? Like maybe if reflected a real world where decent people who loved each other could have different viewpoints about sex and lived different lifestyles?

Sex is a perfectly natural part of life and there is nothing wrong with it being dealt with honestly in films. Teenagers wanting to have sex and actually having sex is also normal and natural. Throughout history and up until about a hundred years or so ago, teenagers around 17 or 18 years old (the age of the characters in the film), would have been married and would have had three children already. Teenagers are perfectly capable of understanding the implications of sex and being able to deal with the emotional ramifications of sex. It makes absolutely no biological, evolutionary sense that a human should not be able to mentally and emotionally handle a sexual relationship at the time his or her body reaches its full reproductive capabilities...

Oh, but wait a minute, we mentioned evolution, didn't we? That's also a blasphemous idea that was whispered into the ears of evil men by Satan himself.

Or perhaps this film is not an entire cop-out after all. Credit should be given the movie makers for at least making two of the characters gay!

An assault on reason by unethical frauds

2010-02-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

Well, try as I might, it becomes just about impossible to escape the Parents Television Council's unrelenting assaults on mainstream American attitudes and values - not to mention basic reason and logic - all bolstered by non-existent data and a complete incomprehension of social science methodologies. I have written about this on the blog numerous times, but a new editorial - a call to censorious action, as their editorials usually are - by the PTC has just staggered me by the audacity of its unethical, dishonest misrepresentation of a study.

When I wrote about the PTC's mangling of the Kaiser Foundation's study on children's media use, I wrote that I felt that the PTC's laughable conclusions were due perhaps to their sheer ignorance, ineptitude, and blind ideological dogma, rather than willful dishonesty. I no longer say that after reading a piece by PTC member Melissa Henson. Here, she does not merely mangle social science data, but attacks the character of Fordham Professor Paul Levinson. Since I know Dr. Levinson, since I got a chance to read and listen to his defenses of free speech and expression, and know his honesty and integrity, Henson's article is especially offensive to me. But once you get a chance to read the actual study she uses to make her arguments, you realize that you just read the work of a con artist, a fraud, a liar who wilfully distorts clear data for her extremist social agenda.

You can read Henson's piece right here.

Now, not to put myself too high on a self-righteous pedestal or anything, but I do give my readers the references to everything I talk about. Henson does not.

But Henson's piece is an editorial piece on the web page of a group called The Church Report. They are an evangelical organization that characterizes its own social activist positions as "Christian. Conservative. Concise."

The meat of Henson's article - and its many underhanded, unethical distortions - starts right in the title: "TV Trash is Harming Our Children." This is a conclusion Henson reaches after having read a study on the sexual attitudes and behavior of teenage boys, put forth by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. The actual study itself can be read right here. You owe it to yourself to check it out. It's not a difficult read at all. Now Henson does tell us that the study has also been quoted in a Seventeen Magazine article. For a moment or two, this does make me wonder about Henson. Might her offenses be just a result of her obtuseness. Maybe she only read the Seventeen article and never bothered to check out the actual study. You can find it quite easily on Google! But, again, reading her sleazy little attack on Dr. Levinson, I hesitate to blame her absurd article on her ignorance alone. This is a profoundly dishonest and unethical editorial she writes. But, back to the meat of the article...

Henson tells us that the study has concluded that children are "harmed" by "trash" on television. She makes an argument for some causality when it comes to the kind of life children are living. She claims that somehow children - mainly boys - are hurting today and this harm has been caused by television. This could not be farther from the truth.

The study is made up of a several quantitative data sets, all compiled from surveys. That means the study lists numbers. Numbers as in statistics gathered by asking the subjects closed-ended questions and multiple choice questions where they could only choose from a given set of possible answers. Based on this research methodology, the study lists lots of percentages. So what do all these numbers tell us? As it so happens, the numbers paint a surprisingly positive picture of boys and their attitudes toward sex, toward girls, and sexual mores.

Now the authors of the study tell us this right in the beginning!! I'm not sure how Melissa Henson could have missed this. There is plenty to be happy about. In fact, I think the numbers of this study paint a portrait of America's young boys that shows a generation that is surprisingly mature, well-balanced, sensitive, and decent. We find out things like the fact that the majority of boys (66%) would rather have a meaningful relationship with a steady girlfriend than just sex, the same percentage would be happy in a relationship without sex(!), and a majority (75%) prefer to date an exclusive girlfriend instead of sleeping around and playing the field. Furthermore, 75% of the boys say they have more respect for girls who are not quick to say "yes" to sex, 56% are "relieved" when their girlfriends tell them they want to wait to have sex, 74% think other teenagers take sex "too lightly," and 75% want to lose their virginity with someone they are in love with. Moreover, there is also quite a bit of empowerment of girls in many of the relationships, with 78% of the boys saying that their girlfriends greatly influence their sexual decisions. Sounds pretty good, right?

I think so, although the study is not all a rosy picture. It does indicate that the knowledge of a lot of boys about safe and effective contraception and birth control techniques is sadly lacking. Furthermore, a lot of the classic double standards are still alive and well in boys, like expecting girls to take care of contraception. But what this data also seems to indicate is that the antidote is rigorous and thorough sex education for kids starting in the middle school years and into high school. Aye, but therein lies the rub, don't it...?

The sort of far right wing social conservatives like the Church Report organization and people like Henson's PTC/MRC/CMI organization have always fought tooth and nail to keep sex education and contraceptives from teenagers!

And what bothers Henson the most out of this entire report? A section of a sentence that tells us that boys "feel way too much pressure from society to have sex." At this part in her editorial, Henson is off and going. Or, perhaps, we should say that she is flying off on auto-pilot, unreeling all the usual PTC talking points about the "trash" and "sleaze" and "garbage" on TV. This is where her editorial turns into a scummy little canard against Paul Levinson, insinuating that he prefers children to watch scenes of "bestiality," "adult/child" sexual contact, and contact between children and prostitutes. But even when it comes to that single statement of "too much pressure from society," Henson's conclusions perfectly demonstrate the usual PTC two-plus-two-equals-five logic. In the section of the study where the "pressure" from "society" phrase comes up, there is not one word about the media, about TV, about advertising, about the internet, or anything of the sort. Instead, in the same paragraph we are told that teen boys sometimes feel pressure to become sexually active from girls and that they might sometimes lie about their sexual experiences in order to stop OTHER KIDS from pressuring them into becoming sexually active. In fact, the study does mention that boys (as they always have since time immemorial, no doubt, and certainly well before advertising and TV) often lie about their sexual prowess, their conquests, and proficiency. In other words, the classic, teen macho "locker room" behavior. And this sort of sexual posturing has always been a part of adolescent and young adult male behavior. Anthropologists will even tell us that it might be a part of a genetically-programmed part of the male psyche with evolutionary advantages. One can find all that stuff in the sorts of book that The Church group people probably don't read much.

Now when it comes to analyzing the data to get some sort of a picture for where TV and all that sleazy, Satanic porn come into play, one should go to the later parts of the study and look at a table under the question "how much does each of the following influence your decisions about sex?" Do we not raise our eyebrows about the ambiguities in that question? Pop quiz folks: how can something like "decisions about sex" be interpreted in all sorts of ways? Moreover, the subjects gave their answers to this part of the survey by filing out a Likert Scale questionnaire. Those are the things that go on a spectrum between "a lot" to "a little." So, in other words, there is no discussion, no question and answer interaction between the researcher and the subject. But even so, the "influence" of porn is still below that of girlfriends, parents, friends, religion, and sex education in school. Below porn is information coming from doctors and TV only shows up on the list below that. Only "online" information about sex has less of an impact on boys than television.

But finally, I would also like to draw a bit of an attention to who exactly Melissa Henson is. Just what makes her so qualified to come to such drastic, apocalyptic conclusions about the study's data. Her bio under the editorial claims that she is a "noted expert on entertainment industry trends and the impact of entertainment media on children and pop culture." Yet her more extensive bio on the PTC web page tells us that she is merely the Director of Communication and Public Education (doesn't public education sound kind of Orwellian?) of the PTC. She's their PR person! She also somehow became a "noted expert" in social science research with only a BA in "Government" from the University of Virginia. In 1997, we are told, she started at the PTC as an entertainment analyst, documenting instances of inappropriate content on television." So she was one of the people watching hours of TV for the PTC, counting every utterance of a "hell" or "damn" on television shows.

In the words of Crystal Madison, the New Jersey chapter president of the PTC, one of our former Culture Wars guests who tried to rally the PTC to put financial pressure on St. Peter's College, the sort of "studies" the PTC conducts are worthless. Or, specifically in Madison's words (check it out right here) "we're not a lab, nor are we scientists."

Waiting for Howard!

2010-02-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

I just needed to put one more post - perhaps not the last one - up about the Parents Television Council's new white whale on TV. Here is a link to their latest whining session about Howard Stern on Fox's American Idol.

This piece by the PTC almost reads like a self parody. If Saturday Night Live would ever revive their old Church Lady routine with Dana Carvey, the PTC could give them endless free material. But the best part of this whole farce is that the PTC's Tim Winter seems to be daring Fox to put Stern on the show and see the program disintegrate because of the "anti-family" tone it is sure to take on.

Sure, Tim, I'm sure that American Idol will wither and die of low ratings once they put on the most successful radio personality in history.

Tim, could you please say hello to the Easter Bunny for me, since it's obvious that you're living in a fantasy world. I would also ask you to say hello to Santa as well, but I don't want to keep endorsing that secular symbol of the liberal media's attack on Christmas.

I really, truly hope that Fox would rise to the PTC's little challange and continue soaring in the ratings. It would prove yet again that a demented group of terroristic whackos like the PTC and all their sister organizations like the MRC and the CMI and Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council are nowhere near to representing the values and tastes of the average American.

We'll be back!

2010-02-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

WSPC Culture Wars, starring yours truly and Ernabel Demillo, will be back and broadcasting again on February 18!

By then the apocalyptic blizzard that has shut down our broadcast facilities will be history, hopefully not to be replaced with a new batch of snow!

So we'll be back in a week, addressing anything and everything that fuels those culture wars, including...

Pink Ouija boards!

Yes, folks, most of the e-mails I've gotten over the last day have been about the pink Ouija boards, so we promise to talk about those!!

The date's February 18!!!

Support Howard Stern on American Idol!

2010-02-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

If Howard Stern becomes a new judge on American Idol, I would whole-heartedly endorse the show, applaud it, and encourage everyone I know and everyone who reads this blog - especially if you are one of the "Nielsen families" - to watch and support the show. Howard all the way!!

Now why do I write this? I admit that I've never watched an episode of American Idol all the way from beginning to end and I really could care less who wins each season and becomes the next big bubblegum music sensation. American Idol is just not my thing. There's no sex or violence on American Idol, so it doesn't really hold my attention. Maybe if the contestants could get into some fistfights or some good hair-pulling chick fights...perhaps.

But Howard Stern changes things and - most importantly!! - Stern's judgeship is now being opposed by America's own home-grown terror group, the Parents Television Council.

The PTC just started e-mailing their members and it's attempting to round up a protest campaign against Idol, trying to force the show to keep Stern out of the judge's seat. In other words, this group's terror campaign to push broadcasters into censoring themselves is up and going again. Just like their past intimidation campaigns have forced CBS to censor its Grammy broadcast (see posting below), they are attempting to bully and coerce the producers of Idol into caving in to the PTC's repressive, ultra-right-wing social agendas. And make no mistake about it, this is what the PTC's ultimate goal is...

Just why exactly is the PTC mounting its terror campaign against Fox and Idol this time and trying to bar Howard Stern from this show? Because of what Stern has said and done on his show in the past. Behavior on Stern's show is offensive to the PTC, it's behavior which the PTC in all its self-righteous wisdom as America's moral guardians, has defined as "indecent" and "offensive," and behavior which now should disqualify Stern from a show like Idol. Nowhere in its harangue against Fox (read it here), does the PTC even try to make its usual effects argument for why Idol should be censoring itself. Just what kind of an effect will Howard Stern's words have on "America's children and grandchildren" if they hear it on Fox?

Nothing the PTC can prove, of course. As usual!!

No, the anti-Stern hysteria campaign is just more of what the PTC usually tries to cram down America's throat. It's a war of values, and a war of trying to force a retrograde, repressive Victorian value system on 21st century society.

Perhaps if the PTC were were so outraged by people's past bad behavior, they could have campaigned to keep the Tim Tebow anti-choice ad off the Super Bowl as well. The Focus on the Family's own past behavior can easily be found through any quick Google search...or wait a minute, even by going to their web page right now. Some of the most virulent, intolerant homophobic hate-speech one might wish to try and stomach is all over the pages of Focus on the Family and its adjunct organization, the Family Research Council. If Howard Stern qualifies for the PTC's pressure campaigns, so does the Focus on the Family.

Beware the pink boards!! They steal souls!!!

2010-02-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

This piece on the Reason magazine blog is just too priceless!

Ouija boards are made in pink to be marketed just to girls and, of course, some concerned parents are, well...concerned. And worried, and angry, and feelig all apocalyptic.

I would bet a whole lotta money right now that some of these people are Parents Television Council members. He, he, he...

Fordham Prof's retort to PTC terrorists...

2010-02-07T13:27:00.000-08:00

Check out this nice piece on CBS's self-censorship and comments from Fordham Professor Paul Levinson and the wing-nuts of the Parents Television Council.

Readers of this blog are already familiar with the fringe lunacy - bolstered by a thorough and spectacular level of ignorance of basic social science and constitutional law - of the Parents Television Council. If not, look at all my comments about this group in the archives on the right and below (especially my comments on their policies of threatening learning institutions).

The PTC and its head, Tim Winter, sent a "thank you" note to CBS for its heavy-handed censorship of the Grammy broadcast. The group seems to be happy that its terroristic campaign of letter writing to the FCC is paying off when broadcasters censor themselves. When TV networks choose to step on artists' rights to free expression out of fear of being punished by the FCC's unconstitutional powers to levy fines for broadcast content, the PTC feels that it has scored a point in the culture wars.

The only war the PTC is waging is on the most basic American, constitutionally-guaranteed, rights to freedom of speech and expression. When CBS takes these censorious measures to avoid the FCC, we see that the PTC's war is a true terror war. They are creating a chilling effect on free expression, creating a cultural atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

As I had written before, all people concerned with freedom of speech and democracy should exercise their own rights to speech, visit the web pages of the PTC and their adjunct groups like the Media Research Center, and let them know that Americans will no longer cave in to the pressure campaigns of cheap, mindless thugs and bullies.

A slight delay...

2010-01-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

...of WSPC Culture Wars by on week, unfortunately.

On February 4th, however, we will be back, good as new, as fun as new, and kicking off a new season with author Keith Stern telling us about his book, "Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgenders."

Don't miss it!!

This is just too easy...

2010-01-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

Last week the new Kaiser Family Foundation report on children's media use was released and it made a few headlines.

The crux of the report was something that most people who are somewhat aware of their surroundings, who are in the proximity of young kids - maybe if you go to the mall or get pissed off in a movie theater when all the cell phones are lighting up around you - pretty much expected to read: kids are using the media more than ever. They are using new media more than their elders and they are using what Fordham Professor Paul Levinson calls "new new media" (twittering, texting, blogging, YouTube, facebook) more than anyone. Frankly, Levinson's new book, "New New Media," is a much more enlightening and engaging read about these technologies and a book I highly recommend. The Kaiser study is a series of statistics based on surveys of teenagers...hey, it is what it is.

But now I just ran across something I was sort of expecting to see once the Kaiser study appeared: its paranoid misinterpretation.

The first people to point to the Kaiser report's statistics and issue portentous warnings about the decline and fall of civilization (again) are my good buddies in the Parents Television Council. The PTC is doing its usually thing in light of the study: jumping to completely unwarranted, censorious, hysterical conclusions. They can be read in their weekly warning newsletter right here.

The PTC piece is erroneously called "Children Overwhelmed by Media." This is impressive in itself because the very title of the article is already a misinterpretation of the Kaiser data. Some could call it a willful misrepresentation perhaps, an outright lie, but I really don't want to give the PTC that much credit. After my past experience with the PTC, including my debate with their 2008 "activist of the year," Crystal Madison, I've come to the conclusion that from the rank and file of the PTC and all the way to its top leadership, these people are simply too ignorant of social science research methods and data interpretation to even come up with a sophisticated lie about a simple survey like the Kaiser study. The study does not talk about whether or not children are "overwhelmed" - the loaded, negative connotation of that term is obvious - but that children are using new new media a lot more than before and they are using media in a different way than their elders, than children in the past. Why does this data mean that children are "overwhelmed?" Who has ever conclusively proven and established what is a "normal" level of media use and what is "pathological?" Thus, what standard is the PTC using to determine that the media-use percentages of the Kaiser study qualify as "overwhelming."

By the way, as a side note, one should go ahead and check out who some of the most committed activists of the PTC are by visiting their web page, http://www.parentstv.org/, and looking at the "grassroots" link. This has information on all their regional directors, including brief biographical information. What's obvious is that none of these people have any real background in social science research whatsoever. They appear to be a lot like the busybody neighbor, Gladys Kravitz, in the old "Bewitched" sitcom; the shrill, judgmental prude who can't make it through the day without sticking her nose in other people's lives. The sole reason for the PTC's existence is for its own censorious prudes to stick their noses in other people's lives and tell them how to run their families.

As for the PTC analysis of the Kaiser study, as you read on, you find it getting more and more amusing as it goes along. The more I think about it, as a matter of fact, the more convinced I am that I can use this as a piece of teaching aid in the future when I need to illustrate the most incompetent way to misinterpret the basic meaning of statistical data. But anyway, just after summarizing the Kaiser study, the PTC goes on to its rant about the data's "Impact." Naturally, according to the PTC brain turst, this data conclusively proves that children are harmed, they are turned ignorant, violent, sexually promiscuous band of little savages. The article rails against all the "harmful" media content children are now exposed to, including pornography and violence.

Except, of course, that the Kaiser study says nothing of the sort. First, the Kaiser study does not talk at all about the specific content of the information its subjects view or listen to. The PTC assumes that the subjects are watching porn and violence. And need we bring up the old joke about what you do when you assume...? Ok, sure, let's bring it up: you make an "ass out of U and me." The PTC, though, seems never to hesitate in making asses out of themselves. Second, the Kaiser study very clearly states that CAUSALITY IS NOT TO BE INFERRED from this data. Even when the data claims that more of the children who are the heaviest media users (47 percent of the children with high-use levels) tend to have lower grades (C or lower), the authors write "the study cannot establish a cause and effect relationship between media use and grades." This conclusion, by the way, is not merely "political correctness," as the PTC founder Brent Bozell has claimed in his past articles when he cavalierly equated a statistical correlation with a causality, it is a FACT!! Maybe kids who are lazy, unmotivated slackers in school to begin with tend to waste time on their iPods and their computers and smart-phones more than the over-achieving kids. Generations of slackers have found ways to waste their time long, long before the arrival of new media. Moreover, I'm also just kind of impressed by the fact that even 53 percent of the new new media's high users DO NOT get bad grades.

But such a laughably incompetent interpretation of simple statistics is not much of a surprise when it comes to the PTC, its activist members, or any of their adjunct organizations like the Media Research Council or the Culture and Media Institute. These are the folks who put links on their web pages to studies that prove the exact opposite of what the PTC et al. is trying to argue. These are shrill, authoritarian censors who, apparently, are too busy to be bothered to read a study past its title. Perhaps they should ask their illustrious advisory board, made up of such intellectual giants as Pat Boone and has-been Disney actor Dean Jones, to do a better job of advising them about the meaning of very basic scientific data.

War's just been declared!

2010-01-21T05:02:00.000-08:00

After a bit of a layoff, I wanted to get back into the swing of things on this blog by updating the status of the WSPC Culture Wars broadcasts.

On January 28, Ernabel Demillo and I will be back on the air for a whole new season of talk, debate, and entertainment.

Listen to the show live at www.spc.edu/WSPC next week. In the meantime, you can listen to the podcasts of last year’s shows at www.culturewars.libsyn.com

Just calm the f%^& down!

2009-12-16T13:47:00.001-08:00

Wow, I just ran across this new article about sexting and I was surprised to see that the great sexting debate might not be some fleeting, momentary, absurd moral panic. It appears to be an absurd moral panic that has some staying power.

Apparently some polling data is showing that a larger number of older teens (16, 17) are doing sexting than their worried parents might have thought.

Now it remains to be seen if more anti-sexting laws will be pushed once again.

But where is the great surprise in all this? And quite frankly, I scratch my head over the sort of outrage and paranoia this is inspiring. I mean, let's see now...teenagers, kids going through puberty, are going to start experimenting with sex and exploring their sexuality. Who da thunk it? You know what? If you got anywhere close to a passing grade in high school biology class, you would think this sort of behavior was perfectly normal and expected.

Or perhaps the the kids of the folks in those morality groups like the Family Research Council or the Culture and Media Institute or the Parents Television Council might not be doing anything like this. You know, those people who have their kids sign the virginity contracts (and whose kids are having sex and getting pregnant at the exact same rate as all other teenagers who don't sign the contract and don't go to alcohol-free dances where you're supposed to stand at least a foot away from your partner and leave room for Jesus).

But, then again, who ever got pregnant from a "sext" message? Or caught a social disease from one? There are quite a number of other statistics on the sexual behavior of "these kids today," and they are also more likely to be engaging in safe sex activities than ever before. If a teenager is going to be having sex today, it is more likely that they will be using condoms than ever before. And, again, if sexual experimentation merely involves the cell phone, you don't even need to be worried about a leaky condom or a missed birth control pill.

So, with all the risky ways teenagers can explore their sexuality, texting might actually be the safest and best alternative.

And, of course, if today's parents, those creaky old squares, are giving too much static, junior can always remind them that grandma dropped acid and had sex with three guys at Woodstock.

I'm in complete agreement...

2009-12-16T13:26:00.000-08:00

This is a really cool piece about the former Mrs. Marilyn Manson discussing the art form of burlesque dancing.

And I think she's quite right about the U.S. being somehow more Puritanical now then it was 70 years ago. But, then again, today we have certain groups who think TV shows like Lost and Heroes and Fringe are obscene.

And I completely support burlesque dancing in all its forms!!!

*%#^ 'em if they can't take a joke!

2009-12-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

How can we tell when the world's going to hell in a hand basket? Maybe it's when political correctness gets spread all over the globe.

Check out this hilarious piece about the Labatt's Blue ad in Canada. The advertisement urges its audience to leave some beer for Santa this Christmas instead of milk and cookies. Naturally, some busy-bodies are upset over it. Even though the ad is really for Labatt's alcohol free beer. Alcohol free?? What a wimp out.

Although the best part is that Mothers Against Drunk Drivers is one of the groups not too worked up exactly because the libation is without alcohol and they don't feel like this is endorsing drunk driving.

But remember what was behind Grandma getting run over by a reindeer!!

The last days of the FCC...I hope!

2009-12-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Check out this piece on Yahoo News I was recently interviewed for here.

Of all the possibilities posed by converging media, especially the movement of so much broadcast material to the cable and the Internet, what especially excites me is the coming obsolescence of the Federal Communications Commission.

Since the FCC has no regulatory power over the Internet or cable, a very-near future (the nearer the better!) of online entertainment should be completely free and unfettered, completely independent of the meddling of a bunch of ill-read, double-digit IQ Church Ladies like the members of the Culture and Media Institute, the Parents Television Council, the Family Research Council, and the rest of their moralistic ilk. These are the folks who usually like to start their letter writing campaign to the FCC every time they hear the words "hell" or "damn" on TV, then turn around and claim to represent the values and sensibilities of the "average American." I don't think so!

But this sort of puritanical control over expression in the broadcast media will see its days numbered in the world of digital convergence and the move of ever more entertainment content to the Internet. And it's about time the FCC and its unconstitutional assaults on free speech was put out of commission for good.

Predicting the future on Culture Wars

2009-12-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

We hosted our last program for 2009 on yesterday's Culture Wars, but we most definitely will be back in January.

The episode is now available for downloading at http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/

We attempted to do a little prognostication for the near future as the end of the year is almost here. One of our guests was award-winning science fiction writer Cherie Priest, author of the new alternate-history novel Boneshaker. So check out what someone who looks ahead to the future for a living had to say. It's a great interview and her book is a great read.

Other prognostications come from Alan Miller, CEO of Universal Health Services and the author of Health Care Reform that Makes Sense, commenting on health care legislation and predicting what Congress will do next.

All the mixed feelings over V

2009-11-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

Hmm…I just finished watching the last episode of V that ABC will air until March, 2010, and although I liked it, I’m still wrestling with too many mixed feelings about it. This is a show I want to love so much because it’s a remake of one of my absolute favorite miniseries and series from my childhood. I really, REALLY want to love this show, although I find myself only liking it. So what is V doing wrong and what is it doing right…?

Tonight’s episode had some nice touches, some good plot twists, some original concepts not in the old miniseries. The psychedelic “bliss” scene was intriguing. I want to know more about just what that whole thing was. We also got to see more of the Fifth Column. The Fifth Column resistance network within the Visitor ranks was also a part of the original V story. The Visitor attempt at slipping some sort of a drug into humans around the world via the flu vaccine was a really great touch of paranoia. I liked that a lot, especially during all the lingering controversy about whether or not the swine flu vaccines are safe. Reporter Chad’s brain ailment was also a great plot twist. Do the Visitors want to operate on him to do something to his brain and keep him permanently under control? Chad might be an ambitious opportunist, but there are hints that he might not be as much of a complete, easily-controllable sellout as his counterpart Christine Walsh was in the old V. Chad, the aliens might reason, could still be too much of a wild card to trust completely. The glimpse of an enormous fleet of Visitor mother ships coming to back up the first wave of invaders looked nicely ominous in the final shot of the episode. And, of course, taking a lead from the original, we find out that there could soon be an alien/human hybrid baby on the way.

But, unfortunately, I still have lingering problems about the new V, a sense that too many great opportunities for drama, social commentary, suspense, and just top-notch science fiction are being missed.

I think the main problem this show has is that it does not have a grand enough, epic enough feel. This show is about all of life on Earth suddenly getting changed overnight. In UFO lore, historians of the UFO phenomenon always talk about an old Brookings Institution belief-system-study where a group of experts from various fields – business, political science, theology – were asked to contemplate what would happen to life on Earth if we had undeniable, incontrovertible proof that there was intelligent life somewhere else in the universe. The result, the experts all concluded, was that major – if not chaotic and dangerous – upheavals in thinking and beliefs would sweep the world. That idea is what V should be about!! I want to see more of the world in this new V and I want to see how day-to-day attitudes and ways of living have been thrown into turmoil by the presence of the Visitors.

What frustrates me is that the producers of the show promised ideas like that when they teased bits and pieces of the show months ago. Now they don’t seem to be following through. When I saw clips of the first episode, with Erica and Father Jack talking about the Visitors manipulating Earth people’s devotion and beliefs, I thought this new V could quite possibly turn out to be something far superior to the old one. While the old V had a larger-scale, more epic feel with a big cast of characters, it tied itself too much to its Nazi allegory. The original V was stuck in the past. This new one has the ability to examine the world today, to look at our own post-9/11 world where everything was suddenly turned upside down, all the old rules re-written within a span of a few hours. The irritating thing is that I think that the show’s production team is smart enough to do this, especially producer Scott Peters, whose 4400 series on USA dealt with exactly those issues.

In science fiction and fantasy literature, authors often talk about complex “world building,” about creating very fully-realized, detailed alien worlds with intricate histories, customs, life forms, governmental systems, rules, etc. V needs to do some complex world re-building. When I’m going to sit down to see more of this show in the spring, I want to see more of Father Jack’s parishioners and what the Visitors in their lives are doing to their faith. I want to see more of Father Jack’s own conflict of faith for that matter. When he was introduced, he had a crisis of faith, but all of that seems to have been forgotten. Furthermore, what did the arrival of the aliens do to other religions? How are fundamentalist religious movements reacting to the Visitors? What did the alien arrival do to the war in Iraq? To Afghanistan? What does the Taliban think of the Visitors? What does the Christian right think of the Visitors? Maybe Chad should be prodded by an influx of e-mails from his fans to ask the Visitors what God – if any – they believe in. Remember how big a part of the plot religious faith was in the film Contact? Or how about politics? What’s going on in Washington while the Visitors are insinuating themselves into every corner of civilization? The first episode hinted that the aliens might have been here for decades and might have taken over and manipulated governments. I hope we see a little more about that.

So far, unfortunately, all we’ve gotten was a small-scale potboiler with only three characters dominating most of the stories. We see Erica and Father Jack worrying a lot and talking about ways to find out what the Visitors are up to. We also see some of Ryan, the Fifth Columnist, also worrying a lot and trying to figure out a way to fight back. Aside from those three characters taking up most of the screen time, now and then Chad shows up for a few minutes, elated over his sudden rise to journalistic stardom. The only character who seems to represent the rest of the world, the people dealing with the sudden, incomprehensible upheaval in their lives, is Erica’s son, Tyler. I also find Tyler to be the most annoying of the lot. He is one of those characters groomed to be some sort of a teen idol, little more than a stereotypical, ego-centric brat who sits around sulking because Mom is working too much and “she just like doesn’t get me, man.” In this episode, sure enough, we saw him sitting in counseling and moaning about how his mother just does not understand and she’s never there for him. His turmoil over the changing world has, so far, gone no further than trying to deal with his crush on the blonde alien babe, Lisa, and how to keep it all a secret from Erica.

V should be a lot more than these small-scale character intrigues. It has the potential to be a truly great science fiction epic if it would only set its sights a little higher and endeavor to something bigger than a tired, oft-seen family melodrama.

Now as I’ve read on some science fiction web pages, ABC apparently has ordered a shakeup in V. We only have four episodes so far because filming was shut down and some of the production team fired. The rumors are that the network had big problems with the way the first four episodes turned out. Well, I have problems with the way these episodes turned out too. And, unfortunately, the ratings of the show fell quite sharply from week to week. So I hope we really do get to see more V in the spring, and to see more ambitious, epic-scale, intelligent, world-building science fiction.

Cowardly ABC and lying PTC

2009-11-24T14:10:00.000-08:00

ABC television needs to be sent a different set of protest letters for their cowardly cancellation of Adam Lambert’s performance on Good Morning America. This time, the letters should be sent by a true cross section of America, people who, once in a while, actually take ideas like free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of choice seriously.

ABC, you see, was sent some 1,500 letters by members of the Parents Television Council following Lambert’s homoerotic performance on the American Music Awards. By ABC’s own admission, that was something they considered a small number of complaints. Nevertheless, they suddenly got paranoid over a fringe group of censorious thugs like the PTC and suddenly cancelled Lambert’s scheduled appearance on GMA. What gives? Over a small number of protests??

The PTC’s own reaction to this, however, has been a display of their usual duplicity. According to this article, Dan Isett, the Director of Public Policy for the PTC, suddenly backpedaled from the group’s usual policy of advocating ever-more draconian and bizarre efforts at censoring broadcasting (the PTC are the yahoos who believe that shows like Ugly Betty and Lost and Law and Order are obscene and the government is justified in keeping them off TV). According to Isett, “the idea that he (Lambert) should be scrubbed from TV completely is not where we’re going.”

Yeah, right! The PTC are not in favor of censoring anyone…Sure, Danny, anyone with half a brain, or any passing familiarity with your scummy organization will even believe that for a second.

Blatant lies in the face of criticism and challenge are the PTC’s stock in trade. If one spends even a few moments looking over the PTC web page, they will be quickly overwhelmed by quote after quote, one article and essay after another, giving clear instruction and policy positions on how the group will fight to REMOVE various TV programs from the air because they deem such programming “obscene,” “filthy,” “sleazy,” “vulgar,” or “offensive.” They threaten to pressure advertisers to withhold support from TV shows until they are cancelled, yet a lying douche bag like Isett has the gall and the decency to say that censorship is “not where we’re going.”

But telling lies, even in the glaring media spotlight, has been a PTC specialty since its inception. The group’s founder, Brent Bozell, has threatened to publicly label advertisers as being complicit in murder for putting their commercials on professional wrestling programs that were proven to have contributed to children killing other children. NOT ONE SINGLE instance of a child killing another child has ever been proven to have been influenced by wrestling.

Bozell has also been less than perfectly honest about the political orientation of his group. The son of a former Joseph McCarthy speech writer, Bozell has repeatedly tried to claim – with the perfectly straight face of a sociopath – that the PTC is a nonpartisan organization and that he himself is not even a Republican. Yet on his bio on the PTC web page, he proudly claims to have been Pat Buchanan’s National Finance Chairman in 1992 and a one time president of the National Conservative Action Committee, which “helped elect dozens of conservative candidates over the past 10 years.” This is all on his web page! Check it out!!

As former pro wrestler Mick Foley writes so eloquently about Bozell in “Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker than Professional Wrestling,” the PTC founder is “a charismatically challenged, lying sack of shit.”

But he’s not the only one of his kind at the PTC. The organization seems to draw pathological liars to its membership ranks like some kind of a magnet. The head of the New Jersey chapter of the group, one Crystal Madison, most often will say that she opposes censorship, but has told TV Newsday magazine that she is a PTC member to fight for a future where shows like Dexter and Family Guy will be “eradicated.” I don’t know, eradication kind of sounds like censorship to me. But those people who listen to my Culture Wars radio show will also know that Madison has been giving instructions to her supporters on how to pressure my college’s donors until the radio show of yours truly is removed from the air. Confronted about this, just like Isett, she backpedaled and claimed that financial pressure was not really an attempt at removing my show from the air. Yeah, Crystal, sure, we believe that!

Nevertheless, ABC television has chosen to cave in to the bully tactics of a group of transparent liars who represent values light years removed from the sentiments of mainstream America.

The PTC's endless whining...

2009-11-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

...is now aimed at ABC TV for not censoring Adam Lambert's homoerotic performance adequately enough on Monday night's American Music Awards.

The Parents Television Council's bitching session is in its full glory on their web page. As usual, though, organization head cheese, Tim Winter, is long on colorful words and short on any actual substantive arguments as to why anyone seeing Lambert's performance might be harmed and why television should be censored and fined by the FCC.

Oh, wait a minute, I guess Winters' previous article about what research proves and does not prove about media effects (just scroll down on the PTC web page and you can find their "study" of violence toward women in the media) is supposed to answer any lingering doubts about effects. It's an interesting article, although one that might make anyone who passed a basic statistics class in high school howl with laughter. The article, explaining that correlations in statistical research amount to a causal effect, is sort of like someone publicly arguing that one can, in fact, travel faster than the speed of light.

I've come to believe that the average PTC "concerned activist" member might have a broad masochistic streak. These people somehow get off on completely humiliating themselves in public by saying and writing some of the most embarrassing foolishness one can possibly think of.

So, since these folks seem to enjoy abuse and like complaining, I still encourage people to complain to them. Various e-mail addresses may be found on their web page - and those of their adjunct organizations like the Culture and Media Institute or the Media Research Council. But here they are for your use and enjoyment:

grassroots@parentstv.org
editor@parentstv.org
contact.cmi@mediaresearch.org

A rocky "Road" to Christian audiences?

2009-11-24T06:58:00.001-08:00

There is a fascinating article in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine about the marketing of the apocalyptic film, The Road, to Christian audiences.

Since the film is dealing with end of the world issues the readers of Revelations often contemplate, the makers of the film are attempting to lure in the Christian faithful. It makes enough sense, right? But what is interesting to me is the article's quite true statement that The Road's marketing to conservative Christians might be "counter intuitive." The Road, you see, is rated R.

What this has made me wonder about is the general state of faith-based entertainment. There is huge money to be from fundamentalist Christian entertainment these days, although the nature of this entertainment has often left me scratching my head. I have seen a number of films made for the Christian audience and I've read a few faith-based books as well. The most notable for me was Left Behind (only seen the film and haven't read the book) and The Shack. Both of these stories, as well as a few others of their kind struck me as a bit...well, sorry to say, lame.

OK, maybe Left Behind was a little better than the rest. At least there was some violence and killing there. I always enjoy violence and killing. If there would have been a little sex, it would have been even better. The flick, after all, was about the impure and the sinners "left behind" at the Rapture. So wouldn't these sinner commit, you know...sins? Maybe say a few curse words? Have a little sex before marriage?

Which again brings me to contemplate the state of "Christian" entertainment.

And let me pause here for a second and explain the quotes around Christian. "Christian" these days seems to exclusively refer to fundamentalist, ultra-right-wing conservative Christians. These are the ha-ha-you're-going-to-hell-and-we're-not (to steal a phrase from Stephen King's Under the Dome) evangelical Christians. "Christian," it seems, no longer refers to Catholics or Methodists or Episcopalians. Only to the folks who think Harry Potter is teaching witchcraft and devil worship, the folks who want to ban Halloween, who think the Catholic church is a cult and the Pope is the Antichrist, who believe that dinosaurs never existed but God, the great cosmic prankster, just littered the planet with big bones to mess with people and test their faith.

But what I wonder about is why can't there be any "adult" Christian entertainment? Religion, at its most effective moments, helps people cope with the worst the world can sometimes throw at them. Sure, organized religion can often offer circular, contradictory, or just plain illogical and impenetrable answers to the big questions of human existence. I think the best summary of what the Bible is all about came in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days. The Bible's message, according to End of Days: "Shit happens." Read the Bible closely and you'll realize that that really is what the good book boils down to.

But why can't "Christian" entertainment deal with issues like this? Why can't "Christian" fiction contemplate the rougher, the harder, the more difficult, ugly, unjust, and cruel aspects of existence, even if the only answers it might come up with is "shit happens"?

If one were to make a truly faithful film adaptation of the Bible, after all, it would probably be X rated. I would really love to see those scenes of Lot's daughters seducing him after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

But in the meantime, "Christian" entertainment remains little more than simplistic, shallow, singing-birds-in-a-flowery-meadow type of pabulum. And if this is the sort of things "Christian" audiences want, it sounds like they will be sorely disappointed by The Road.

Hitler is sending Seth MacFarlane hate mail again

2009-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Well, there's something new and interesting to see again on the web page of the Parents Television Council.

And I really do enjoy visiting their web page a lot and I get excited every time they post something new there. I guess I enjoy their postings the same way most fans enjoyed watching The Jerry Springer Show. The PTC can make you feel good about yourself even on a bad day. They can make you glad that your mother and father weren't brother and sister and that you weren't born with an IQ lower than your belt size. That you're not slow-witted enough to be eligible to join the PTC.

The same goes for the pages of such PTC adjunct organizations as the Media Research Council and the Culture and Media Institute. I highly urge all to check them out and leave them some feedback.

But this time the PTC is calling for Microsoft to boycott all of TV writer/producer Seth MacFarlane's shows. According to PTC grass roots activist Gavin McKiernan, who certainly seems to have all the IQ qualifications to be a member of the PTC, all the MacFarlane cartoons like Family Guy and American Dad are guilty of purveying all the worst sort of civilization destroying content one can see in the media today. Why Seth MacFarlane shows, McKiernan whines, have jokes about feminine hygiene!!!! The horror!!

But it's unfortunate that McKiernan's harangues are sort of flabby and half-hearted this time. He doesn't even try to justify his censorhip-through-economic-thuggery with any sort of an effects argument. Seems he hasn't looked at the PTC's effects "research" lately (even those studies they post that proves the exact opposite of what the group is trying to argue)

However, I suppose MacFarlane's real sins are the way he spoke about the PTC, rather than the sophomoric, school yard "feminine hygiene" jokes on his cartoons. In MacFarlane's interview to The Advocate magazine, he said about being crticized by the PTC: "Oh, yeah. That's like getting hate mail from Hitler. They're literally terrible human beings. I've read their newsletter, I've visited their website, and they're just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on Christian values—I mean, I'm an atheist, so what do I know?—they spend their entire day hating people. They can all suck my dick as far as I'm concerned."

Three cheers for Seth MacFarlane!

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

2009-11-22T11:14:00.001-08:00

Well, it looks like something positive can be said for a bad economy after all. According to this article, the bad financial times drove one of those busy body do-gooder pro-censorship family groups out of business.

Yessssss!!!!!

The National Institute on Family and the Media has closed up shop because of the bad economy. Of course I'm completely enjoying this because this is a group that's even more ignorant of basic social science research than the Parents Television Council and more insane than the Family Research Council (they, the supporters of Carrie Prejean and all things wholesome, homophobic, and holy until, at least, their wholesome media darlings start masturbating on sex videos).

Yesssssss!!!!!!!

These folks have been almost exclusively obsessed with video games and, as the article discusses, at one point seriously argued that the video game industry tries to persuade America's children to become cannibals.

To the concerned parents and activists of the National Institute on Family and the Media: Good riddance! We won't miss you!

Or wait a minute, maybe we will. People this nuts are just too entertaining.

Whoa!! The world is still here...

2009-11-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

Well, after a short hiatus for a trip to the National Communication Association conference, I am stunned to realize that I get a chance to sit here and add to this blog. The world did not end exactly a week ago with the CW Network's broadcast of Gossip Girl. The Parents Television Council's fears and panic were in vain. I'm stunned.

Of course, on their web page they warn that they will keep an eye on the unfolding threesome storyline. I'm certain that the CW is very nervous.

I do still encourage folks to check out the PTC's page and decide for themselves just how much of a self-parody this group is. Then if you don't think their analyses of the evil threats TV poses are funny enough - including group head-honcho Tim Winter's assault on science, logic, rational thinking, and sanity in his essay about the "link" between teen depression and Internet use - check out the parody of PTC outrage in the new edition of Entertainment Weekly magazine.

Maybe the PTC will now look for new targets to pressure and harass. They might try and threaten the donors of colleges again.

Watch TV for a good cause!

2009-11-09T05:54:00.000-08:00

Monday 9/8 c is the time to get in front of the TV and watch the CW network…if only for a good cause!

Tonight is the airing of the Gossip Girl episode that will supposedly depict a threesome among college age characters. THE DOWNFALL OF HUMANITY IS AT HAND!

Or so the Parents Television Council will have us believe. This, by the way, is the organization that identifies shows like “Lost,” “Heroes,” “Fringe,” “Law & Order,” and “Ugly Betty” as “indecent,” “pornographic,” and “obscene.”

A mainstream group of parents they are…SURE!

Of you don't believe this nonsense, watch the Gossip Girl and support free speech!

Or better yet, go to their web page here and talk back yourself. Send them messages and tell them what you think of the PTC.

PTC loons urging censorship...again

2009-11-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

As we discussed on the last episode of Culture Wars, available for podcast download here, the regressive nutcases of the Parents Television Council are gearing up for yet another fun activity: "let's try and censor television again." They, most likely, couldn't find any small colleges to threaten with pressure tactics and letter writing campaigns to force donors to withhold money. Those good folks of the PTC tend to do that when college radio stations air opinions the organization disagrees with.

This time the target is the CW network's Gossip Girl TV show because America's impressionable young children are in dire peril yet again. The group is trying to pressure CW affiliates to pre-empt the show, scheduled to air on November 9. America's children need to be protected at all costs, they scream their shrill paranoia on their web page (and the web pages of other fringe extremist anti-media organizations).

The scientifically-illiterate buffoonery of this group has been discussed on this blog a number of times before. For example, the fact that they are incapable of understanding or explaining why a content analytical study does not prove a causal chain and neither does a statistical correlation. Or the fact that they post links to studies on their web page that prove the exact opposite of what the PTC is trying to argue.

These people are not just incompetent clowns but, unfortunately, a collection of bullies and thugs, a gang of home invaders that tries and muscle its way into your living room and control what you watch, what you listen to, how you raise your children, and manage your family. But if these people like to push broadcasters around and lobby the FCC to trample on the First Amendment, it's about time for level-headed, clear-thinking Americans to push back a little and let them know how they feel. The PTC can be contacted through their web page and on those of their various "grass roots" members and supporters. I would urge those who support the freedom of speech and free expression to do so.

Conning the con men on the next Culture Wars

2009-11-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

Anyone who ever received those Nigerian bank account scam e-mails needs to tune in to a hillarious episode of Culture Wars on November 5!

Our guest will be author Diana Grove, talking about her new book, Dot Conned.

Not only did she expose the online scammers and swindlers in her book, but turned the tables on some of these Internet scumbags. So make some time for the next Culture Wars and enjoy listening to some sweet revenge.

And don't forget to let us know what you think of this or any other shows by e-mailing us at wspcradio@gmail.com

V in the age of conspiracy.

2009-11-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

Since talk of alien visitations and abductions has given Culture Wars its most downloaded show ever and one of my all time favorite TV events were the pair 1980s V minseries (V and V: The Final Battle), I have to voice my qualified approval and enjoyment of the new V series on ABC.

Although the pilot episode was too brief - with only a one-hour episode - and might have been better served by a two-hour special, this new incarnation of the alien invasion story had some nice ideas floating around.

The most interesting aspect of this new series appears to be the way it seems to embrace some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories of the past two decades and, at the same time, dramatize them with effective, straight-faced seriousness. But good science fiction is always a product of its times and a barometer of the zeitgeist. The old V was a rumination on totalitarian regimes like communism and fascism (it was quite heavy-handed in its reminders of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust). A number of critics have commented on the new V and terrorism, but what this new incarnation of the old show seems to really be about is conspiracy-minded thinking. Fear of conspiracies is a sign of the times today.

Here, the aliens do not really arrive for the first time when their giant UFOs appear over all the major cities of the Earth but, we are told, they had been here for years, maybe even decades. The have taken over positions of power and manipulated world events to bring about crises, wars, economic instability, and general chaos, fear and mayhem.

No doubt the show is a big hit among conspiracy theorist circles. It reminds me the most of the conspiracy theories expounded in the books of British author David Icke. Since the 1990s, Icke has written a series of books proclaiming that all of the world's leaders are reptilian aliens in disguise, manipulating world events to make everyone's life harder. (Why don't conspirators every conspire to make things easier?)

The uncanny closeness to Icke's disguised reptilian conspiracy theories is what makes me just slightly leery of this new stab at V. Many of Icke's biggest fans have also jumped on the US-govt-was-behind-9/11 conspiracy theories as well. Having a major network TV show confirm the delusions of crackpots like Icke and the 9/11 "truth" movement is just a bit unnerving.

But I can't wait until next week's episode!!

All things Vampire!!

2009-10-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

Only two days before Halloween, you can't miss the October 29th episode of WSPC Culture Wars.

Our special guest will be Leslie Klinger, the author of The New Annotated Dracula, discussing all things vampire.

Listen live or download the podcast and hear us talk about the undead, from the blood-thirsty and vicious to sexy and sensitive.

And let us know which one is your favorite by e-mailing us at wspcradio@gmail.com

Legalize Steroids!

2009-10-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Aside from our discussion of exorcisms on this week's Culture Wars, we talked about Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban's comments about steroids in professional sports. This has been getting only a few lines of news copy here and there, and one of them can be read right here.

Predictably, one can read some "outraged" responses to Cuban's comments on most web sports sites. Cuban's just trying to be outrageous and controversial, most of these complaints charge.

Actually, Cuban's being way too low key and conservative in his comments. What he should be saying is that steroids should never have been made illegal in the first place!

The criminalization of steroid use will, hopefully, one day be right up there in the anals of American legal history as one of the all time stupidest laws ever, EVER passed. Right up there with the prohibition of alcohol. It belongs in those humor books listing stupid, archaic laws on the books, all the ill-conceived nonsense like the counties that make walking your aligator on a leash in public illegal. Like the FCC given the power to fine broadcasters for too much sex and violence.

In his comments, Cuban explains that limited, doctor-supervised steroid use should be tolerated as long as it can be proven that there will be no negative side effects...

Come on, Mark, you can be more daring than that! Where is the trademark Cuban bravado and willingness to court controversy?

Doctor-supervised steroid use, of course, is already legal. But what I want to pick some bones with is the statement about allowing steroid use as long as it can be proven that no negative side effects will result. The fact of the matter is that there is HARDLY ANY valid, scientific evidence that steroid use is life-threatening in any way. And I'm talking about scientifically conducted research at a university, research which is then peer-revieved and published in a scientific journal. Scientific evidence that steroids are a threat, something that will hasten your trip to the grave?? DOES NOT EXIST.

What does exist is a whole lot of locker room mythology and stories about the friend of a buddy who heard that his girlfriend's brother got some pills from a training partner that did this and that.

As far as what scant little scientific research exists, there is some evidence of...drumroll...hair loss is some steroids users. Or acne! Or the tenderness in the nipple areas. Some elevated cholesterol levels or some raised blood pressure levels. Hardly the scourge of modern America.

Binging on too much chocolate can also cause acne in some. Too much bacon and greasy meat can also raise cholesterol levels. Too much salt might take up your blood pressure too! Reading anything ever published by L. Brent Bozell can take up the blood pressure of anyone with an IQ higher than the average belt size.

Stronger and clearer data about the side effects of steroids exists when it comes to female steroid use. Women who use too much steroids, like professional female bodybuilders, have shown signs of secondary male characteristics developing. Things like the deepening of the voice or the growth of excess body hair or the coarsening of the skin. But is any of this life threatening?? No! And if female athletes choose to tolerate these effects on their bodies - if they choose to defy a social construct of acceptable appearance and standards of attractiveness - is it really the role of the government to come in and start punishing them? No!!!

The history of steroids and the law is yet another infuriating case of a moral panic running amok. It's a history that goes back to the 1980s and early 90s when the brain cancer and death of football player Lyle Alzado made headlines. Before his death, an emaciated Alzado, a toothpick-thin version of his old self, declared that he believed that his long years of steroid use gave him brain cancer. This captured a lot of media attention. What did not was the fact that Alzado's own oncologists - that's cancer specialist - did not believe that there was any evidence of a link between Alzado's juicing and his cancer. But a sticky little detail like science didn't get in the way of a moral panic sweeping America and over-eager crusaders and politicians passing laws, as usual.

I would have loved hearing Cuban make a few statements like these. But he felt a little too timid that day, unfortunately.

Oh well...gotta hit the gym and pump some iron. But I really wish I could legally do something about this plateau I hit with my bench presses!

...and speak of the Devil

2009-10-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

This Thursday, the WSPC Culture Wars show will air one of its two great pre-Halloween programs.

Be sure and tune in - or download the podcast if you miss it - as Ernabel Demillo and I discuss real life exorcisms and the Catholic Church's views on demonic posession and the very manifastations of the Prince of Darkness himself with Saint Peter's College's Father Mark DeStephano.

And learn about the College's connection to some key players in the infamous exorcism case that inspired the William Peter Blatty book and the William Friedkin-directed movie!

The Devil made them do it!!

2009-10-21T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting piece from Newsweek to counter a really annoying and absurd sudden crop of sanctimonious "analysis" of the recent Heene family baloon-boy saga. "Who is to blame for this nit-wit, Richard Heene's ill-conceived hoax to get himself of TV?" some ask. Why the media and reality TV, of course, comes the response from some.

Give me a *%#&ing break!!!

Reality TV is to blame for a moronic stunt like this? As the Kate Dailey piece explains quite well, this is entirely the fault of one greedy, stupid, glory-seeking attention whore. And people like this have been around for centuries. When it wasn't reality TV, then the unscrupulous, the lazy, the morally-bankrupt could find plenty of other ways to scam and con their way into riches, into fame, into attention.

Arguments like the ones blaming reality television - and the wealth, fame, and adulation of some reality TV stars - for this idiotic stunt is like saying that a rash of college cheating and unscrupulous academic behavior should be blamed on valedictorians, on the kids on the dean's list and the honor roll. Why if we didn't lavish so much praise and attention on a select few, then everyone else wouldn't be pressured into cheating in a misguided need to get good grades.

Blaming the media for all of society's ills and a select few people's criminal, unethical, or just plain stupid behavior has turned into modern society's version of "the devil made me do it."

Weirdness in Australia

2009-10-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

You can now download the October 15 episode of Culture Wars! As always, go to http://www.culturewars.libsyn.com/ and click on any of the episodes you like.

On yesterday's segment, however, we did talk about the swine flu, hoaxes by people who did not win the lottery, Rush Limbaugh and the NFL, as well as a bizarre story out of Australia.

You can check out a story about it here as well.

Australia is considering a suggested TV ban for children under 2 years old. Now the wackiest part of this is that such a drastic recommendation is made because research on how television might effect toddlers has found nothing! Yup, some studies have been done about whether or not those baby videos, things like the Baby Einstein DVDs, might actually turn babies into...Einsteins. No effect or impact on the children could be found whatsoever. Nothing good, nothing bad...nothing at all. One could just as well show political debates, car racing, or hard-core, triple X-rated pornography to a toddler and absolutely no impact would be made on that kid.

Nevertheless, some brain trust down under has now decided that babies need to be barred from the TV set.

Hmm...because no effects were found. Kind of leaves me scratching my head.

"New New Media" on Culture Wars

2009-10-07T18:07:00.001-07:00

One of the best past guests on Culture Wars returns for the October 10 episode!

Check out Fordham professor Paul Levinson as he talks about twittering, blogging, and the reasons to love all the new new media when he discusses his latest book...New New Media.

Action Heroes and Super Heroes!!

2009-10-03T16:52:00.001-07:00

All readers can check out the Sunday, October 4, episode of the syndicated PBS talk show, Asian America, where my Culture Wars cohost, Ernabel Demillo, will interview me and author Jeff Yang.

The program airs from 7:30 to 8:00 pm on Channel 25, in the New York tri state area. Or the entire episode can be seen after the 4th by visiting the show's web page.

Tune in and watch us discuss super heroes, action films, and what super power we would love to have!

More Culture Wars on podcast!

2009-10-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

The October 1st episode of Culture Wars is now available on podcast here!

Check out a fascinating - and somewhat disturbing - discussion of some Journal of American Medical Association statistics on med student misbehavior on social networking!

UFO abduction expert David M. Jacobs on WSPC Culture Wars!

2009-09-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

You definitely want to check out the podcast of the latest episode of Culture Wars right here.

Ernabel Demillo and I had an excellent discussion with Temple University Professor, Dr. David M. Jacobs, one of the most prominent experts on the UFO abduction phenomenon and a historian of the UFO controversy.

Dr. Jacobs is the author of books like Secret Life: Firsthand Accounts of Alien Abductions, The UFO Controversy in America, and The Threat.

Check out this new book!

2009-09-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

I just needed to put in a quick plug for a new book by one of the best guests we had appearing on Culture Wars this year.

Karen Sternheimer, USC sociologist and debunker of the media-made-kids-killers/drug-addicts/sex-maniacs nonsense has just come out with her new book, Connecting Social Problems and Popular Culture: Why Media is Not the Answer. Check it out and just calm down, let junior play with video games, listen to that rap song, and just get over your media paranoia!!

Paranoia can ruin your health!!!

And listen to all the Culture Wars podcasts right here.

Culture Wars 9/17/09

2009-09-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

An all new Culture Wars radio show is less than 24 hours away!

Listen live from 12:05 to 12:45 Eastern time as Ernabel Demillo and I give our take on some of the most colorful headlines and look at the lives of journalists covering some of the most dangerous hotspots in the world.

What makes someone cover a war? The action? The excitement? The money? The journalistic ideals? Join us as we talk to guest Todd Baer and find out.

Listen live at www.spc.edu/WSPC

And listen to our past podcasts at www.culturewars.libsyn.com

OK, enough is enough!

2009-09-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I, for one, am getting a little tired of the ongoing saga of all the outrage over Rep Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst last week. As you can read in the story here, Wilson has just been officially rebuked by the House of Representatives for his breach of decorum and, mainly, for his refusal to apologize on the House floor.

This whole circus, in the meantime, is inspiring a lot of sanctimonious ruminations about the state of American culture and just how much of a “coarsening” of the culture is going on. Others still – Democratic others, to be sure – are shaking their dismayed heads over the Wilson outburst being just another example of how ugly and dangerous the debate over health care is turning into. This is just one more example, they say, after the nasty and loud “town hall” screaming matches going on all across the country about health care.

It’s about time – especially for the Congressional Democrats – to get over it and put a cork in all the righteous outrage over a coarse culture and the disappearing decorum.

Was Wilson out of line yelling at the president the way he did? Yes.

Should he have apologized to Obama? Sure.

Which he did and now it’s time to move on. Congress has much more important things it should be troubling itself with than the lack of decorum. As I recall, by the way, it wasn’t entirely civil and proper to start booing George W. Bush during a State of the Union address either. And other than decorum, I think a major problem this country could possibly be facing is that enormous deficit our grandkids will be paying off. That’s something to get worked up and worried about, not Wilson’s refusal to apologize yet again.

And let’s also stop romanticizing a past of perfect civility and good manners in American politics. Because it never existed!! If this was the early nineteenth century, the president just might have challenged Wilson to a duel over the public insult.

As for the anger over health care, the loud town hall debates, and the insults hurled at Obama from the right-wing…Sure, many of the charges and name calling are ridiculous and out of line. But, then again, such constitutional provisions as the right to free speech, assembly, and the right to petition the government give everyone the right to vent their anger at lawmakers. In a lot of places in the world, people would be arrested and killed if they insinuated half the things the conservative right has yelled at Obama.

And, then again, perhaps concern, fear, and anger might even be warranted with the sort of debt this country is sinking into and an administration whose health care plans have, for far too long, remained vague about how to pay for an overhaul of the system and still maintain quality health care.

For those looking for the root causes of all the anger and rancorous debate, perhaps it’s the fact that the president had one too many comic books written about him and YouTube videos made where he is portrayed as a superhero, a savior, and a messiah, and too many fluff pieces written about his wife's sleeveless dresses. Perhaps this seemingly endless public honeymoon is to blame for his vague healthcare promises and seemingly flip declarations that he was certain that the healthcare overhaul would all be done by this fall, no problems, no concerns, no disagreements, no debate. The president’s time to be a celebrity is over and it’s time to be a leader in a democracy that allows for such sticky and uncomfortable rights as debate, criticism, and the public airing of anger and mistrust of the government.

Culture Wars Podcasts!

2009-09-10T17:10:00.000-07:00

The premiere episode of the new season of Culture Wars is now available on podcast. To download a free episode, just go to www.culturewars.libsyn.com and point and click.

In today's episode, hear me an Ernabel Demillo recap a wild media summer, from Michael Jackson to Ted Kennedy...and the more harebrained 9/11 conspiracy theories!

If you have I-pod, subscribe to the show for free!!

The Culture Wars are back ON!

2009-09-09T17:30:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, September 12, at 12:05 pm, a whole new season of "Culture Wars," with yours truly and Ernabel Demillo will be back on WSPC!

Tune in and catch all the action at www.spc.edu/WSPC

Sly, say it ain't so!!!

2009-09-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

OK, despite everything on my plate today, I just need to comment on a sketchy movie rumor right now. I must do this as a film fan, action movie buff, author, and Rambo fanatic. Some of the rumors circulating on the Internet - including a sketchy and confusing voicemail to aintitcool.com by Sly Stallone himself - the plot of the next Rambo film sounds like it might take a bizarre detour into...science fiction!

And hey, don't get me wrong, I love science fiction and I love Rambo!

You can check it out at http://www.aintitcool.com/ but I think having Rambo hunting a genetically-engineered beast in the frozen northern wilderness has got to be one of the most insane ideas I've heard in a long time.

For the sake of referencing topical political issues, let me make this comparison: it's almost as insane as fearing political indoctrination during Barack Obama's speech to kids about staying in school!

The No-P.R. Zone...I like it!!

2009-09-08T11:50:00.001-07:00

Although I generally don't care enough about reality show "stars" to comment about them, I just found this morning's interview Jon Gosselin gave on Good Morning America somehow so...refreshing and satisfying. You can also read about it here.

In a world where just about anyone who ever finds himself in front of a camera somehow seems to sound like they've already been coached by armies of P.R. people, Gosselin just said it like it was. This otherwise annoying, irritating, and utterly uninteresting human being spoke of his even more irritating shrew of a wife, Kate, their breakup, and explained how much he "despised" her. YES!!!!! My man! I mean, aren't you just tired of hearing so many public people who go through conflicts and messy breakups - people you know just detest each other - and they usually wind up talking in a sort of plastic P.R.-speak like "I still care and respect her," "it just didn't work out," "we're the best of friends" and so on and so on? Care and respect...yeah, right!

I can't believe that I'm writing this in a public forum, but Jon Gosselin on Good Morning America was the most interesting thing I heard all day long so far. And the day's more than half over!

You're fat, ugly, and stupid!

2009-09-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

Now that a new school year is starting, one is bound to run across a lot of articles like this. You can find them online or, I bet, a lot of the various women’s and mom’s magazines will run them. It’s all about building self esteem in children. And it’s all a great, big, fly-drawing, steaming pile of bovine manure!

If I hear yet another person whining about developing children’s adequate level of self esteem, I’m going to punch them in the face hard enough to cause serious permanent damage…the kind that will give them a low self esteem, develop body image disorders, and leave them spending thousands of their hard-earned dollars in therapists’ offices trying to get in touch with their inner child and learning to love themselves.

As a person who primarily earns his living teaching in college, the self esteem movement has just about driven me to the end of my rope. This is a movement that has been turning people who have started grade school roughly in the 90s and afterward into sniveling, whining, near-psychopathically self-centered douche bags.

Is low self esteem really the biggest problem America’s children are contending with? Looking at some research comparing U.S. kids to those in the rest of the world, I think not. Guess what, folks: American kids have the highest levels of self esteem in the world. But not only do we seem to think we’re God’s gift to everything, but usually people who are the least competent, the most inept, also have the highest levels of self esteem.

And yes, incompetence and ineptitude are really important concepts. Sometimes people need to be told that they SUCK! But in the world of the self esteem movement, we have seen an educational system that tries to create a good self image among children by telling them that they are always perfect, they are flawless, they are the greatest in the world no matter what they do, and that no one has a right to ever criticize them or correct them…EVER!

This is an outrage and something that this culture will be paying a higher and higher price for with every passing year. You see, all the people who are incapable of finding China on a map, who don’t know who the U.S. fought in World War 2 (by the latest estimate, that’s about 40 some percent of the American population), who can’t name the first President of the United States, who don’t know who the governor of their own state is, who have no idea who the Vice President is, are people who all have a very high self esteem, who are in touch with their feelings, and who have learned to feel good about themselves and know that they’re special and unique little gifts to humanity from God, and they all have very unique and very important other abilities.

But that's what THEY want you to think!

2009-09-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

This article about the Michael Jackson death hoax hoax is just priceless. Apparently someone started the online rumor about Jackson faking his death as an "experiment" to see how fast rumors and conspiracy theories have spread on the Internet. And, indeed, they spread very fast because there is still a whole crop of Michael Jackson conspiracy theory web pages up and active. As conspiracy theorists usually do, they point out all the "obvious" mistakes and inconsistencies in the "official version" of the story.

So now that the death hoax conspiracy has been outed as joke, I wonder how quickly the true believers will claim that the real conspiracy is the claim that that conspiracy is not real?

Confused yet?

Well, keep surfing the web this week because as we're heading toward Friday, the 11th, all the "9/11 was an inside job" nutbars will be busier than ever, so confusing conspiracy theories and conspiratorial fantasies will be busier than ever.

And tune in to "Culture Wars" on the 10th to hear me and Ernabel Demillo put in our two cents' worth!!!

Well, it's about time!

2009-08-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

The Michael Jackson death-hoax conspiracy theories are starting to spread on the Internet. At last!! Check out the story here.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised that it took so long for this conspiracy theory to get going. I do have something of a fascination for this since my book on the cultural history on conspiracy theories and conspiracy theory films should be available from McFarland publishing by next year. So now I'm looking forward to reading more of how this particular theory will grow and play out in cyberspace. Will it have the sort longevity as the Elvis is alive or the government-was-behind-the-9/11-attacks conspiracy theories?

Although my favorite cyberspace conspiracy theory is still the one being spread by a small handful of Apocalyptic religious nuts. These are the folks who believe that the third Antichrist is none other than...Arnold Schwarzenegger!! Just google that one and check it out.

As someone who was called the "Antichrist" on the Culture Wars radio show (Returning on September 10, only on WSPC radio), I am kind of partial to all the Antichrist conspiracy theories.

Billy Ray is Da Man!!!

2009-08-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

This article about Billy Ray Cyrus is a couple of days old only because I just ran across it by accident. I haven't made it a point in a while to keep up on all of Billy Ray's comings and goings. But I do love this article about him coming to his daughter's defense after she was criticized for dancing too close to a pole at the Teen Choice Awards. Apparently in the demented, perverse minds of all the country's concerned "family advocates" and media critics, the pole suggested strip clubs or some such nonsense.

Papa Cyrus, of course, disagreed and defended Miley in an Entertainment Tonight interview. Nice going!!

But now I wonder if he's still on the advisory board of a bunch of censorious, reactionary morons like the Parents Television Council, the kinds of people who would notice things like this in the first place and get outraged over the sleazy degradation of America's wholesome childhood and traditional family values.

Oh, mother! Blood!!

2009-08-09T19:02:00.001-07:00

This is a quick link to more fascinating studies confirming the genetic roots of evil, violent, and antisocial behavior: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090804090946.htm Psychos, it seems, are born.

Nowhere does it mention media use, video games, and horror movies. There are some cool supplemental articles too.

The big monkey movie.

2009-08-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

Out of a good summer, the only thing to suffer on this end has been the upkeep of this blog. A million apologies!!!

Although some of my travels – which I’m kind of using as a feeble excuse for not always managing the blog the way I should have – did give me some interesting things to ponder…and to remain amazed by how right I am about my ideas about media and audience interaction.

For example, I was so glad to have wonderful bonding experiences with my 4.5 year old nephew…over films like Peter Jackson’s King Kong. As a matter of fact, watching that film over and over again with him (at his request: “I love this movie, Uncle Barna, I want to watch it every day!) created the best sort of relationship that can exist between uncle and nephew: a favorite uncle can always be counted on to show you fun films your parents would never let you watch.

But my nephew’s ongoing requests to see the film – with its many frightening and violent scenes – whereas he avoids other entertainment that upsets him, demonstrated how active even a small kid can be in controlling what he knows he is capable of handling and censoring his own viewing choice when material becomes too intense to handle.

In the words of the genius George Carlin: “If you want to help children, leave them the fuck alone!” They’re not made of glass and they don’t need to be locked away in a cabinet to be kept safe.

An interesting summer read?

2009-06-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

Here's an interesting-looking book I just ran across on amazon.com I'm considering putting on my summer reading list. It might just be a good beach read...hopefully. It's called "Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio."

According to its description, the book is a criticism of the Fairness Doctrine which, in my opinion, should never be reinstated. Its effect will certainly NOT be more ideas and points of view in broadcasting but less. This is a historical fact. During the years the Fairness Doctrine was in effect, there was a lot less politically oriented, opinion-oriented broadcasting than there is today. If broadcasters had to balance every single point of view with a counter argument, they just played it safe and easy and tried to avoid as much controversial talk as possible.

Today, of course, most of the folks afraid of the Fairness Doctrine are the conservative radio talk show hosts and their fans. Programs by Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or other conservative pundits would not exist under the Fairness Doctrine.

Now the book Censorship appears to be a strictly conservative-point-of-view critique of the Fairness Doctrine. Hannity even writes an introduction to the book. To be fair, though, the back of the book jacket even carries an endorsing blurb by arch-liberal Alan Colms.

While I am opposed to the Fairness Doctrine on principle, I am only a little bit skeptical about the commitment to free speech of what has recently emerged as the "conservative base" of the Republican party. These, by the way are the Moral Majority types, the ultra-right-wing fundamentalists who also rail against the "smut," "indecency," and "filth" of so much of TV broadcasting and shock jocks on other radio programs. You know, the Parents Television Council types. So I'm curious if this conservative defense of freedom in broadcasting is honest, or if it's merely a few disingenuous ultraconservatives talking the talk to save right wing radio while they would back the censorship of anything else they deem "offensive."

God Bless the USA!

2009-06-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well here are just a few more reasons why I definitely don't want to move to either China or any country run by a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. These two stories about web surfing in the not so free world just sealed the deal. Check them out here and here.

Aside from being identified by Reporters Without Borders as the country that exerts the most censorious control over the Internet in Asia, China is also deeply concerned about the moral rot Internet pornography may bring about in young and impressionable minds. Therefore, they want to censor the Internet even further. All computers sold in China, apparently, must be fitted by porn-blocking software. As an educator of college students who understands the importance that rest, relaxation, and entertainment to overstressed and overworked students, this sort of censorship just appalls me! It APPALLS me!!!

The second piece about the new Microsoft search engine, Bing, seems to hint that some software developers might have been Boy Scouts in a previous life. They plan ahead. Apparently versions of their software marketed in Islamic countries already have blocking functions built in, not allowing access to pornographic videos.

While this is an entirely easy shot to take, I will definitely take it...because it's just so much fun and so satisfying: The censorship of so-called "smut" and "indecency" usually goes hand in hand with general censorship, intolerance of dissent, and totalitarianism. Those are words - meaning "totalitarianism," "dissent," and "intolerance," - such American guardians of morality like the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council, and (my all-time favorites) the Parents Television Council should look up in a dictionary.

And I think I will now check out some of the search functions on Bing...

Outrage in North Korea

2009-06-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

In light of today's developments in the case of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, imprisoned by North Korea's psychopathic regime, I would very strongly encourage the support of an organization we spoke to earlier this spring on the WSPC Culture Wars radio show. Reporters Without Borders documents the repression of free speech and journalists around the world and helps fight for the release of incarcerated reporters everywhere. Check out their web page, sign their petitions, and give them what support you can.

You can listen to our interview at http://culturewars.libsyn.com/ or by subscribing to the show for free on I-tunes.

Let James Speak!

2009-06-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, graduation season is upon us (or for some of us, like yours truly, it has already passed...St. Peter's College, where I teach, had its graduation ceremonies on May 17).

But I was just amused to see what a class of true Einsteins UCLA is unleashing on the world in its graduation class of 2009.

According to this story, a large number of UCLA students were outraged that the actor James Franco (Spider-Man, Pineapple Express) was going to give a speech at their commencement ceremony. Franco had received his UCLA BA degree last year (he had first enrolled in the university in 1996). But a lot of UCLA students, it seems, are not happy with this. They feel that he "hasn't had time to accomplish anything with his degree" since his graduation.

This is the reason for rejecting Franco? Are you out of your fracking minds?

There were probably a lot of really outstanding keg parties and a great deal of excellent dope smoked by the UCLA student body over the last four years.

How about letting him speak because he is a person who obviously does not need a college degree to make a living these days but still valued education enough to get that degree? Maybe he would have said something like he completed his degree and now wanted to let other students appreciate the value of knowledge for its own sake and beyond the dollar value of a salary.

Franco, apparently, said that he backed out of giving the speech because of work conflicts. It's a reasonable way to safe face.

But at least he's probably happy that with a degree from UCLA, he just might look forward to a promising career in the entertainment industry.

Way too cool!!

2009-05-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

I needed to post this link to aintitcool.com and their clip of a promotional trailer to a new ABC series as a way of letting some friends tell me "see, we told you so."

Yes, after a lot of complaining about the fact that most everything coming out of Hollywood these days is nothing but another "reboot," "remake," "prequel," "reimagining," or "sequel," I find a new reboot series coming to ABC that I'm actually excited about. Hey, what can I say, we all have a few weak spots for classics we just want to go on and on.

For me, after Rocky and Rambo sequels, it's the 80s science fiction TV series V. If you check out the original two miniseries from 1983 and 1984 on DVD (the DVD of the first miniseries has an excellent commentary track by writer/director Kenneth Johnson), you'll see why. It's surprising how well the originals still stand up and what a great combination they are of action, mystery, and commentary of human nature, freedom, and totalitarianism.

And no, this series is no relation to the heavy-handed, preachy film V for Vendetta.

The great thing from the trailer for the new iteration on V is that it looks like it will be another interesting mix of ideas and SF.

A Culture Wars Podcast Update

2009-05-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an offer you can't refuse! One more update to the Culture Wars podcasts until September.

Because of some unfortunate technical problems, our interview with Dr. Barbara Oakley about her book on sociopathic behavior, "Evil Genes," has not been previously posted. But the episode is up now and it sounds great. Check it out at either http://culturewars.libsyn.com or subscribe to the Culture Wars podcast on I-tunes.

More Culture Wars Podcasts Available Now!!

2009-05-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

On April 30, Ernabel Demillo and I hosted the last Culture Wars episode of this "season." It's now available for downloading at http://culturewars.libsyn.com or through a free subscription at I-Tunes. So be sure and catch this because new episodes will be returning only in September.

But our last spring episode had a great interview with presidential historian Nick Ragone discussing Barack Obama's first 100 days in office. I'd highly recommend you take a look at the link on the right to Nick's excellent blog, too!

Plus, we gave our spin to some of the top headlining news stories, controversies and even conspiracy theories. Check out our take on the swine flu - including Joe Biden's travel advisory - blogging by parents, the FCC ruling on curses in broadcasting, and the biggest question of the day: has Tupac Shakur really faked his death??

But in the meantime, do keep checking in on this blog throughout the summer and get a good fix of Culture Wars: the Blog Version!!

Swine Flu Casualty (sort of): Free Speech

2009-04-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, there seems to be a casualty of the swine flu today...attention to the Supreme Court's outrageous ruling that the FCC will be allowed to fine broadcasters for airing any "fleeting expletives." These are single-word curses like "fuck" and "shit" - or perhaps references that should be thrown around a lot in any documentary about the kinds of people (Parents Television Council) who are celebrating this ruling: "assholes." But while the news headlines have been dominated by the "all swine flu all the time headlines" (and yeah, not an unimportant story), the Supreme Court allowing the FCC to trample all over the First Amendment has fallen off the media's radar today.

For some excellent thoughts on this, do check on the right of this blog for Paul Levinson's piece too. As he argues - and has been arguing for years - it's outrageous how the words as clear as "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech" can be allowed to be flouted by an irrelevant and reactionary bureaucracy like the FCC.

And Dr. Levinson is absolutely right in the argument that conservative justices are ignoring their own beliefs that a judge should not legislate from the bench. This is an exact point I have believed in for a very long time, every time I heard the conservative far right wing moralists supporting censorious legislation. What the hell happened to the party of "small government" and Ronald Reagan's goal to "get government off your back?" What happened to the American people knowing how to live their lives and raise their families better than Washington bureaucrats and censorious, puritanical, whacko special interests?

Perhaps this might be one of the reasons so many are deserting that party for a real limited-government-alternative like the Libertarian Party.

Reporters Without Borders on WSPC Culture Wars

2009-04-23T18:47:00.000-07:00

Today Ernabel Demillo and I hosted an important episode of Culture Wars, talking to Lucie Morillon from the Reporters Without Borders organization. They document and try to make public all the attacks on journalists and free speech around the world.

The episode is already up on podcast, so do check it out and download it either from I-Tunes or go to http://culturewars.libsyn.com/

This organization fights for people who get themselves into trouble around the world for doing real reporting. There are journalists out there who cover things more important than gossip and celebrities and fashion, and often they are silenced and punished for it. Reporters Without Borders tries fight for their lives, their safety, and to make their work public.

Right now American reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee are imprisoned in North Korea and Roxana Saberri is jailed in Iran.

Listen to the show and check out the work Reporters Without Borders is doing to further free speech and free press around the world

Most requested Culture Wars episode on podcast!

2009-04-21T11:01:00.001-07:00

WSPC Culture Wars' most requested episode for podcasting - with guest Nadia Cornier of the Firebrand Literary Agency - is now available for dowloading on either I-Tunes or by going to http://culturewars.libsyn.com If you go to I-Tunes, search for the show by putting "Culture Wars" matched with either Barna Donovan or Ernabel Demillo. You can subscribe to the podcast for free!

Previous Culture Wars episodes aired since January are also available.

And be sure and let us know what you think of the show, what you think the most pressing current events issues are that we should talk about, or give us any kind of feedback at wspcradio@gmail.com

Jackie Chan a Communist Stooge??

2009-04-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

Whoa! Who’d a thunk it? Jackie Chan, the talented and imaginative, but basically harmless clown of martial arts cinema is actually becoming a controversial figure in Chinese politics. Check out this story about a conference on April 18 that’s generating some uproar.

As well as it should! For someone who had reaped the benefits of Hong Kong capitalism and democracy, his comments that Chinese people might not be able to handle freedom is distasteful. Perhaps he’d taken some lessons in political hypocrisy from the Hollywood far left the last time he was on this side of the Pacific…anyone remember Madonna on her Michael Moore kick, chiding Americans for being too materialistic? Sean Penn and Danny Glover palling around with dictator Hugo Chavez?

Now I’m curious as to what else will happen in a reportedly building backlash to his statements. In the meantime, I’m also wondering if he might be due a little bit of the benefit of the doubt, since we can’t be sure of the accuracy of the translation of his words or the context they might have come in. Jackie, after all, had also been very critical of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989. But, then again, as his critics point out, there have been a number of extremely callous statements he had also made about the critics of China’s policies. Of those who protested the 2008 Olympics, he said they were “only” trying to cause trouble to get themselves on TV. To imply that the critics of China’s invasion of and policies in Tibet are somehow akin to crazy reality TV show wannabes acting outrageously to get attention is ridiculous. The fact that an angry crowd turned out to jeer him on a recent trip to Taiwan doesn’t surprise me.

All in all, his critics have called him one of the most visible apologists for the Chinese government’s anti-democratic policies. Perhaps his behavior might be motivated by the fact that his massive personal fortune and business interests are still invested in Hong Kong and mainland China. But, nonetheless, his behavior is disturbing and his critics are more than entitled to their outrage.

Jackie, say it ain’t so!!!!

A Cool Culture Wars lineup takes shape for 4/16/09

2009-04-10T18:44:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to tune in to the April 16th episode of WSPC Culture Wars! Our lineup of guests will include Firebrand Literary Agency founder Nadia Cornier. She will talk with us about kids' publishing and cultural controversies.

After our past episodes discussing those randy, sexting teens, we'll take a look at how the very big business of children's and Young Adult (YA) publishing deals with the tough issues of sex, sexuality, and all things controversial in a world of paranoid adults and extremely worldly kids.

You deffinitely don't want to miss it!!!

New podcasts of Culture Wars shows!

2009-04-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

Be sure and check out http://culturewars.libsyn.com/ for more episodes of WSPC Culture Wars, including Paul Levinson's discussion of "sexting," Jennifer B. White talking about the publishing industry, PR, and the beginning writer, and Jeff Yang and Parry Shen talking about Asian American superheroes and comic books.

If you haven't been browsing the links over on the right side of the screen recently, be sure and check out Paul Levinson's blog post about sexting for more really great points about the issue, or click right here.

See, I Told You So!!

2009-04-03T10:01:00.001-07:00

Check out this interesting little story about a killer attempting to shift the blame onto media use for his behavior.

Some vicious lunatic slit a man's throat and now he and his lawyers are arguing that it was all because of a pornographic video he was shown by a "third party."

So he shouldn't be punished so severely, right? It wasn't really his fault.

Yeah, right! Sure!!

Just as I argued before that all these ridiculous, idiotic, absolutely unfounded arguments about the effects of media violence and porn are a boon for lawyers trying to keep their scumbag clients from being punished, anti-media-violence and anti-porn do-gooders are the best friends every violent criminal in this world has.

And take note of how this pornographic tape has mysteriously vanished...like it never existed in the first place.

Here's an invitation to all the "family" advocacy groups, the media watchdogs, our good buddies and pals in organizations like the Parents Television Council: if you really believe that a porn tape made this piece of human garbage kill, please contact me right away. I have this great big stone and concrete and metal thing that spans the river between Manhattan and Brooklyn to sell you. It's mine! I own the deed! Trust me! You believe me, don't you?

Comparing "Sexting" to Child Porn is Ludicrous

2009-03-26T18:22:00.000-07:00

Check out this latest article about how a budding new moral panic, the teenage cell phone phenomenon of “sexting” is about to turn into the next salvo on free speech and expression in America.

The ACLU, to its credit, is at least taking on this Pennsylvania county’s paranoid and destructive attempt at prosecuting teenage girls who sent provocative pictures of themselves to their boyfriends over the cell phone. And this prosecution is taking place despite the fact that THE TYPES OF PICTURES SENT BY THE GIRLS ARE NOT CLASSIFIED AS ILLEGAL IN PENNSYLVANIA!!!!!!!! So what the &^$%ing %#&* happened to equal protection under the law?

What happened is the latest case in the ages-old social phenomenon of the moral panic. A moral panic usually ensues when some strange and unusual event, some aberant occurrence is suddenly blown out of proportion (most easily by the mass media) and cast as a pernicious crisis threatening all of society. Sexting is just the latest moral panic, right after the scientifically baseless media violence hysteria, the steroid paranoia, the violent video game hysteria, the Satanic heavy metal hysteria, the comic book moral panic of the 1950s, the Red Scare, and all the way back to the colonial witch trials.

Sexting, as so perfectly argued by Fordham Professor Paul Levinson on today’s Culture Wars radio show, is not child pornography. It is not created under the same circumstances and it is in no way an equivalent of child pornography. Child pornography is the victimization of children, the videotaping or photography of children against their will by a pornographer, for distribution and sale. Sexting is teenagers voluntarily taking pictures of themselves and controlling those pictures by distributing them to friends and boyfriends. It is sexual experimentation and rebellion by kids at an age when every generation of teenagers had been rebellious, when they have experimented with sex and sexuality. Comparing sexting to child pornography is ludicrous.

But sexting is also a wonderful boon to various groups of censorious crackpots and control freaks like the Parents Television Council (check out their web page where they bemoan the creeping immoral menace of sexting) and the rest of their meddling ilk who use this as an opportunity to push for more intrusive laws and regulations that control private behavior. And just be sure and take a look at the part of the Pennsylvania sexting article that describes some of the punishment the authorities want meted out to these girls. A forced “re-education” program? RE-EDUCATION?? The Soviet Union used to have re-education programs in the Siberian gulags!!!

So don’t believe for a microsecond that all the moral watchdogs and media crusader groups are as appalled and saddened and outraged by sexting as they claim. These folks are happy as can be every time they imagine another kid “sexting” a picture of herself. The more kids sexting, the better, they must no doubt be gushing in their most private moments. Every such incident is just more ammunition for these parasites to launch their assaults on free expression and civil liberties.

A Can't Miss Culture Wars Episode

2009-03-25T17:42:00.001-07:00

Be sure and tune in to the March 26th episode of WSPC Culture Wars, when we talk to Fordham University Communication Professor and Science Fiction author Paul Levinson. Dr. Levinson, a strong supporter of our show and St. Peter's College, will talk to us about the intrusion of ideology and political dogma into the world of science and research.

Plus, Dr. Levinson has debated PTC head Brent Bozell and challanged him on the fact that his regressive and repressive organization has virtually no scientific basis for their anti-speech agendas. You must check those out on YouTube!

Also, Jennifer B. White, author of The Witch and the Devil's Son, will talk about aspiring authors trying to beat the odds and breaking into the big, bad world of New York commercial publishing. In this economy, the deck might be stacked against writers, but Jennifer, a PR professional, has tips for guerilla marketing tactics and how talented and imaginative first time writers can get their work some attention.

More Culture Wars podcasts available!

2009-03-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

More episodes of the WSPC Culture Wars radio show are available on podcast for downloading right here.

Be sure and check out our most attention grabbing episode yet, our debate with the head of the New Jersey chapter of the Parents Television Council from February 5.

In hindsight, I realize that our discussion with that woman was entirely too long to make the point that her organization has no proof, scientific basis, or even understanding of the issue of negative media effects. If you read her blog entry about our exchange right here, you will realize that she does a much, much better job of trashing the PTC's repuation than I ever could. Just read through her entire blog entry and take a close look at her defense of the nature of the PTC and why my criticisms are unfair. The PTC, she explains, is not a scientific organization and they can not be expected to offer scientific proof to back up their claims about all these horrific, heinous and brutal effects of the media. Need I say any more?? A major PTC figure basically admitting that everything they argue is essentially worthless because they can prove none of their assertions. What a gem!

But make sure and listen to the entire broadcast because everything that she argues - including her endorsement of PTC members threatening a school's donors - are loud and clear and easily understandable...contrary to her blog suggestions that her comments were made intentionally hard to hear.

Then, for a guest arguing the different side of the story, make sure and download our talk with USC sociologist Dr. Karen Sternheimer.

For more of Karen Sternheimer, check back in to the Culture Wars podcasts this week and hear our discussion with her about the modern celebrity culture and the social networking phenomenon. Then read more of Dr. Sternheimer's thoughts about identity and social networking at the Everyday Sociology blog.

You can not be F*%#ing serious!!

2009-03-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

And that was my reaction upon seeing the story about Dora the Explorer's makeover turning up all over news sites. Day after day after day!! Why is this still news? For example, check out the MSN A-list web search page right here.

Like I wrote some weeks before, I wouldn't be too shocked to look at the news one morning and see stories of stonings, the burning of witches, and the red-lettering of adulterers. We're sliding into a culture of ridiculous, puritanical paranoia.

These idiotic claims about a glammed up Dora, or video games and kids, sexy MTV videos, and violent films have turned into the new version of "the Devil made me do it." By claiming that these cartoons and toys and TV shows and movies are in some way harmful to anyone, are we not manufacturing a million excuses every day for people to avoid taking responsibility for their behavior. Just imagine the following:

"You see, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client is not really a murdering, thieving scumbag who should be locked away for life, but he's really a victim. He's the victim of video games and MTV. They made him do it. He should be treated and understood and felt sorry for. He's the real victim and he doesn't deserve punishment."

As for Dora being too sexy, I just wonder about where the Baby Boomer generation went so terribly wrong. How did people who brag about smoking dope, dropping acid, and free love raise a generation of paranoid nit-witts who get bent out of shape over an educational cartoon character.

As William Shatner would say, "People, get a life!"

Stallone is God!

2009-03-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

If Hitchcock, Kurosawa, and Ford were to suddenly come back from the dead, I don't think I could be any more psyched than I am about the news that keeps coming in about the developments on Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables!

Check out all the news on the stallonezone web page.

What will, no doubt, be the greatest action film ever made has just added Stone Cold Steve Austin to the cast. This, along with Jason Satham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren and Mickey Rourke already signed up. The film will start shooting on the end of this month.

Dolph Lundgren and Sly Stallone together for the first time since Rocky IV! A dream for all violent action film geeks!

The film had better be rated R!!

"Expendable...that's when you're invited to a party and don't show up...nobody cares."

"Rambo, you're not expendable!"

WSPC Culture Wars Podcast Available!

2009-03-12T17:46:00.000-07:00

Podcasts of Culture Wars episodes are being made available at http://culturewars.libsyn.com/

Check out the entire hour broadcast on January 22...the infamous episode that inspired the disapproval of the New Jersey chapter of the Parents Television Council.

Take a listen and let us know if the brief discussion of my book, The Asian Influence on Hollywood Action Films was dangerous, subversive, and threatening enough to family values and The American Way of Life to warrant threats of boycotts against St. Peter's College. E-mail your comments to wspcradio@gmail.com

What I'm still convinced of is that God must love crazy people, because He makes so many of them...and they're all members of whacko media watchdog groups like the PTC and they're listening to our show.

Now at least they can enjoy our programs over and over again! Hey, we take 'em where we can get 'em.

More episodes are being uploaded over the next few days!!

Author Barbara Oakley on the Next Culture Wars

2009-03-05T03:20:00.000-08:00

Be sure and catch today's episode of Culture Wars when Dr. Barbara Oakley discusses her book, Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend, looking at the history of and the current science behind the behavior of the successfully sinister.

From brutal dictators to Machiavellian manipulators, murderous sadists, and rapacious corporate swindlers, Dr. Oakley discusses the research of where and how evil thrives.

The Battles of Culture Wars

2009-03-04T16:57:00.001-08:00

Check out a lengthy article about our Culture Wars show and our PTC run-ins.

I haven't yet discussed the boycott and donor issue here, but this story goes into the matter in detail. Once our ongoing podcasting delay has been resolved, everyone can listen at their convenience and hear how this matter played out on the program.

Satan is Watching You!?

2009-03-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

So do these look like the eyes of the Antichrist?

Some Detroit politicians think so and they, apparently, have nothing better to do these days than waste time trying to get an MGM casino billboard removed. Check out the story here.

It looks like the good folks of Detroit put a lot of intelligent thought into the kinds of people they elect into office.

Although this example is absurd, stupid incidents like this help highlight one of the major problems of life in modern America: knee-jerk impulses to get the government to control speech and expression. If some nut-jobs in Detroit are disturbed by this billboard, thinking it shows the eyes of Satan looking at motorists (these people are probably close kissing cousins to the good folks who thought the theme song of the old Mr. Ed TV show contained Satanic lyrics when played backward and who had nothing better to do with their time than look for Satanic messages in Judas Priest and Black Sabbath songs), is it really the job of the local government to step in and censor MGM advertising?

The best part of the story is about the pastor's outrage at families with kids in the car having to see the billboard. The pastor, of course, could advise all those parents who might be disturbed that the same Bill of Rights that protects that billboard is the one that lets them go to church and worship any way they want.

As one of our Culture Wars fans recently wrote us, "Isn't America great?"

It sure is, even as it lets so many lunatics run around, mount protest campaigns, and get media attention.

Or this could be just another prelude to 2012!!!!!

Gotta read this article...

2009-02-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

I included the links to some outstanding blogs on the right so an astute and active reader exploring every inch of DonovanMedia could check them out and read some really good stuff.

This piece on the Reason magazine Hit & Run blog, though, is so well done I had to take the time to point it out. It's a thoroughly outstanding dismantling and destruction of a particularly noxious piece of bull*%# about the grace and spiritual rewards of suffering through a financial catastrophe.

And yes, I proudly admit that I regularly play the lottery because I want to win a @%*#load of money I can use to buy frivolous, extravagant, expensive stuff and live a life of materialistic bliss.

Octomom Should Do Porn (?)

2009-02-27T18:59:00.000-08:00

...and that was the question for our listeners on the last episode of Culture Wars.

With the nice turnout of opinions on the great chimpanzee controversy, we'd love to know what Culture Warmongers think of the last strange turn in Nadya "Octomom" Suleman's bizarre saga. Apparently she has gotten a $1 million offer to do a porn flick with Vivid Entertainment. Check out the story here.

It is interesting to read that Suleman will be given as much input on the "plot" and the overall development of the film one would expect any major star to get. Vivid CEO Stephen Hirsch has promised to work out the deal with Suleman in such a way that she will be satisfied and comfortable with the finished product. Whoever said the porn industry was sleazy?

So let us know what you think? Should she do it because the money she's earning will keep her from leaching off California's citizens? Or have you had enough of Suleman and wish all news of her would just disappear? Is this tacky and morally offensive? Or maybe you can't wait until it comes out so you can add the video to your library of Vivid Entertainment classics?

Send your comments to wspcradio@gmail.com

Presidential analysis on Culture Wars

2009-02-26T03:40:00.000-08:00

Don't miss today's live broadcast of Culture Wars for some interesting takes on the Presidency and op-ed controversies!

Presidential historian Nick Ragone joins us to discuss his impression of the State of the Union address...and whether President Obama will stay more popular than God.

Over the past week, we also got some interesting listener feedback on the New York Post chimpanzee controversy. We'll read all them on the air today. Don't miss it!

Good riddance to more bad laws...with loving thoughts of the PTC

2009-02-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

Well, a federal appeals court has just declared that a California law that tried to limit the sale of violent video games to minors is unconstitutional, violating the First Amendment and the 14th Amendment. Check out the story right here. And my reaction to this is...YESSSSS!!!

Good riddance to yet another bad law based on nonexistent evidence to prove any sort of a causal relationship between media content and behavior.

And yes, in case my big fans in the Parents Television Council are reading this blog, I am indeed grinning very broadly right now, barely able to resist jumping up and down for joy.

Rulings like this are victories for common sense and reason. These are things severely lacking today. You see, we seem to be living in a world where such things as evidence and proof are no longer requirements for many people to make up their minds about issues. A couple of weeks ago, my radio show, WSPC Culture Wars, aired a debate with the head of the New Jersey chapter of the PTC, where that organization's policies on rational, scientific proof were very clearly demonstrated. Not only does the PTC not really care about whether or not their ridiculous assertions about media violence can be scientifically proven, but they wouldn't be able to recognize scientific data if it very aggressively hit them over the head.

A couple of examples: Their web page is filled with "studies" on the amount of violent and offensive behavior in the broadcast media. These are, technically, content analyses, or literally the count of exactly how many times punches are thrown or shots fired or curse words uttered in any given episode of a TV show. That's all nice and good, except that such a study does not prove a causal link. If you're ever taking a statistics or research methods class and you feel like getting and "F" just to make life more exciting, tell your teacher that a content analysis study is a proof of causality. Your "F" will be assured. Maybe the teacher might even mumble something like "moron" or "idiot" under his breath.

Or go to the PTC's link of "Education" and then the link to "outside studies." Here you will find a lot more content analysis studies, as well as a massive pile of correlational studies (and look up this blog's January post about correlations and the explanation for why saying that a correlation proves causality will also earn you an "F" in a stats class). The best part of the PTC's list of outside studies, however, is the fact that they actually list some studies that completely disprove their position about media effects!!!!!!! The conclusion here is obvious:

THESE PEOPLE DON'T READ ANY MORE THAN THE TITLES OF RESEARCH ARTICLES BEFORE THEY POST THEM ON THEIR WEB PAGE! Or, for that matter, before they try to lobby and pressure lawmakers to enact unconstitutional, un-American, McCarthyesque censorship laws.

So yes, while the good folks like the PTC, their blowhard leader, Brent Bozell, and all the "concerned" activists in their local chapters are upset over the California decision today, I am having a really, really good laugh at their expense.

Whoa!!!!

2009-02-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

OK, you just need to check out this article...based on a study done by the Office of Naval Research. All I want to say is that perhaps from now on the best people to run things in this world, make any sort of policy, must be science fiction writers!

The possibility of battle field robots running out of control and becoming a threat? Haven't we heard this sort of thing somewhere before? Hmm...

All these crazy technological possibilities we're worrying about, science fiction writers have already warned us about a long time ago. I think from now on I will only vote for politicians who can demonstrate that they're sci fi readers.

Of course, military robots running out of control and going all Terminator on you is an easy threat to imagine. The next type of menacing robots to watch out for will be the ones that try to do a favor for you by taking over. Those are the types that want to save you from yourself and keep you from harming yourself. Sure, you might not like it too much at first - the elimination of choices, free will, all that sort of stuff - and might find it all too constricting and unpleasant. But in the long run you'll see that it's all for the best.

Check out those nasty customers in sci fi flicks like Colossus: The Forbin Project, or Will Smith's I, Robot.

But, then again, there are also a lot of humans like that running around out there right now. They're scary.

The posts are back! I promise!!

2009-02-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

...with more apologies to the readers! From now on anyone can fantasize about violent retribution if they need to go an entire week without an update on this page.

I must confess that during the fun and excitement of a long holiday weekend, there was too much I let get in the way of updating the blog. To confirm the suspicions of some of the people who've written the Culture Wars e-mail account (wspcradio@gmail.com), I might even have been up to some no good. Some of the show's PTC listeners have accused me in the past of being in favor of everything immoral, so at least now I need to be honest. I did rip the wings off of a few flies the last couple of days and tripped an old lady.

But at least the past week has provided some really interesting - and exciting - research to mull over. Check out this article about a study from Europe showing that playing video games is actually good for kids! And I endorse the study because it actually takes the social research approach to its data gathering, talking to video-game-users about the meaning of the video games in their lives. So they eschew the correlational and content analytical nonsense. Good for them!!

Sanity on Culture Wars! 2/12/09

2009-02-11T17:54:00.000-08:00

Be sure and tune in to the February 12th show of WSPC Culture Wars when we talk to people who understand big words like “research,” “proof,” “correlation,” and “causality.”

In the wake of last week’s PTC debate, we are joined by USC sociologist, Dr. Karen Sternheimer, talking about her book, “It’s Not the Media: The Truth About Pop Culture’s Influence on Children.” For one of the most readable and concise works on why all the media violence arguments are little more than unfounded paranoia and dishonest flim flam by a bunch of censorious control freaks, buy a copy of this book as quickly as you can!

But that’s not all!!!

Also joining us will be Rick Biondi, former Libertarian congressional candidate from Arizona’s 6th district. He’ll discuss the viability of third party candidates in today’s political culture…and the inherent wisdom of all who call themselves Libertarians!

Don’t miss it!

How to Publish Commercial Nonfiction...

2009-02-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

Dr. Donovan’s advice: Take a lot of drugs first. Hard drugs. Cocaine, heroine, crystal meth. You have to go hard because if you’re lucky, they might give you brain damage and your IQ could drop about a good 10 to 15 points. This way you’ll be in the correct state of mind to write something the book business will deem of interest to the general reading masses.

I’m writing this because one of my former students asked me this same question. Since she’s a pretty bright kid, the drugs are in order. My answer’s prompted not so much by my usual aimless wanderings through the local Borders, but the latest romantic comedy that opened this weekend: He’s Just Not that Into You.
There’s just something about the existence of that movie that annoyed me and got me thinking. I realized I wasn’t so much annoyed by the fact that someone would make a film based on a relationship advice book, but by the fact that the book is so emblematic of the trivial, pointless, redundant pabulum you have to wade through in a big bookstore to find some really worthwhile nonfiction that might educate you, give you a new perspective to think about, or just open your eyes to some interesting and cool new facts.

For example, just wander through your bookstore in the near future and see what you find. Here’s some of the stuff I found, and stuff that left me feeling like an angrier and more unsatisfied reader as I left the store:

Books called “sensitive” and “life-changing.” I hate today’s books that are called sensitive or life-changing. They are most often about people dealing with the same things we all must handle every day. The problem is that these books make the random frustrations of every day life sound like epic obstacles you deserve a medal for dealing with. A few words to the authors of these things: you have to struggle to deal with a breakup, a divorce, your kid going to college, your kid moving home after college because he can’t get a job, your husband cheating, your wife cheating, or you gained ten pounds and can’t lose it? Welcome to the club!

If you’re dealing with any of the problems described above, I am really not interested in reading about it. If publishers pay a great deal of money to get books like that produced and marketed, they will not recoup their losses from me.

I am incapable of giving a damn about how a woman ate her way through Italy and Indonesia following a divorce.

I won’t read books about people and their animals. You get a lot of these in the wake of “Marley and Me.” After the success of the film, you will get a lot more. I saw books about people and their dogs, their cats, and even a “sensitive” and “life changing” book about a researcher and her relationship with a parrot. I had a dog once too. Just like millions of people. I really loved him. He was a big black lab named Einstein. Then, just like all dog-owners, I had to see Einstein grow old, sick and die. I was really depressed afterward. I’m not writing a book about it and I really don’t care to read about anyone else’s dog experience either.

Now let me qualify this by saying that I will read all of Dean Koontz’s fiction about dogs. Koontz, you see, is God and he is the greatest living novelist in America. I would pay to read Dean Koontz’s grocery list.

I also suggest you look at – but don’t buy – books with pastel-colored covers. The copy on these covers will usually look like a high school girl’s wavy cursive. These things are usually either “sensitive” or “quirky.” Most often they are about eating or buying shoes. Pastel covers are also usually found on “chick lit” fiction. Chick lit is invariably about women buying shoes in New York. Chick Lit is usually described as being “light,” "fluffy," or “frothy.” I want my yogurt light and fluffy, not my literature.

Today I saw a pastel-colored book about the importance of having conversations with people. I’m not making this up.

Another author – pastel cover on her book – tells me the importance of writing in good cursive. Thanks for the tip.

Books like these are the literary equivalent of elevator music. Unfortunately, publishers and agents think this is what the average American wants to read. This is the sort of trivial, inconsequential crap that will get multimillion dollar marketing and advertising budgets. And huge advances for their writers.

Seeing all this taking up space in a bookstore is almost as annoying as seeing so much self-help non-fiction and completely worthless memoirs of people of absolutely no distinction.

Most self-help advice I hate because it comes in either of two varieties:

One explains how to deal with the unfairness of a world where every single person you meet does not automatically love you and want to have sex with you.

The other category makes up the massive glut of weight loss advice. Why are these things being published? Or, more importantly, why do people buy them? It’s obvious most of the readers of these things don’t follow the advice between the covers. My free weight loss advice: Stop binging on junk food and get some exercise.

As for the memoirs/biographies: Similar to the points above about people dealing with breakups, divorces, dead pets, and weight gain.

Oh, and then we have the biographies of every flash in the pan, flavor of the month celebrity. I generally have no problems with people writing biographies of accomplished performers, directors and authors whose work stood the test of time or had a major impact on the culture. I own biographies of Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood, Ian Fleming, James Dean and, naturally, Dean Koontz. When I was writing my book on Hollywood and Asian action films, I bought biographies of Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, John Woo, Bruce Lee, and Sylvester Stallone. Chan, Lee, Stallone and Eastwood are people who made a long-lasting impact. Unfortunately, if you go to the bookstore today, you’ll also find biographies of Tila Tequila and Sanjaya Malakar!!! (hardcover prices of $26 and $20, respectively) I doubt that when the list of the important early 21st century performers will be written, the names Tila Tequila or Sanjaya Malakar will be on it.

Since it’s a fact that most books barely break even, I write this as an open challenge to the acquisitions people and literary agents who decided to buy/represent manuscripts about Tila Tequila and Sanjaya. Show me an earnings report that proves these books actually turned a profit.

But, of course, if your IQ is somewhere around your belt size, keep writing! You might have a future in nonfiction publishing.

A Dangerous Media Effect

2009-02-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

Since I was just arguing media effects with the head of the New Jersey chapter of the Parents Television Council on Culture Wars, I can’t help but comment on what may be a truly dangerous media effect I just ran across. And no, it’s not people becoming more violent, or wanting more sex, or trying to bully each other, starving themselves after reading fashion magazines, or watching anything on TV. It’s the possible effect of atrocious journalism.

The FOX news web page has a link to an AP story about a study on video game use by college students, with the headline reading “STUDY: VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES BAD FOR MENTAL HEALTH.” Check it out here.

The article describes a study published in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence. It looked at the sort of people who play a great deal of video games. The researchers report that students who play a great deal of video games are also the ones who may have alcohol problems, use drugs, and have bad personal relationships. The gamers who enjoy the violent games are also the ones to have a lot of sex partners and bad personal relationships. We are told that there is a “clear correlation” between the video gaming habits of these students and the sorry state of their lives.

So this study is proof that video games really cause you to become and alcoholic, a junkie, perhaps a sex addict, and someone who can’t have a healthy relationship, right?

Wrong!

But, of course, going by the AP story, you might conclude exactly that. The way the story is written – and most people are going to get the majority of their science news from the mainstream media rather than reading a dense, jargon-laden academic journal – the average person might conclude that here is a study establishing a clear causality between video game use and behavior.

Except that the study does nothing of the sort. The study finds a correlation, which is NOT the same as causality. A correlation is merely the observation of changes between two variables. From a study like this, we can’t tell if playing video games turned these students into sex-crazed, alcoholic drug users, or if people who like their cheap frat house beer, smoke too much reefer, have sex a lot with different women (most of the problem gamers appear to be men) because they’re loose and licentious (or perhaps they’re just lousy in bed and get dumped after the first roll in the hay) will also play a lot of video games. Maybe if you’re a drunken screw-up to begin with, you might be a high-using videogamer as well.

Again, maybe these people were screw-ups to start with and they turned to video games in their screwed up state.

Of course the problem with this is that media-phobic control freaks like to jump on these stories and get all “active” and “concerned.” For example, we might have a lot of folks at the PTC with a great, big silly grin all over their face right now, writing an Op-ed about the “scientifically proven” danger of video games. Then they’ll be starting campaigns to pass new laws to control video game sales because “the research proves the dangers.” These are the people who are incapable of understanding the nature of correlations in statistics and incapable of grasping why a count of the number of punches thrown in your average Rocky movie is not a proof that Rocky movies cause people to get into fights.

But, nevertheless, these very concerned activists like to get active and pass new laws to control your life and behavior.

And the real culprit in all this is a sloppy reporter!

More State of Panic Coming Soon!!!!

2009-02-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

The podcasts of Culture Wars will be available by early next week. You can tune in and listen to our PTC debate with sound enhancements correcting some of the level problems experienced in the studio today.

Be sure and check back in here and I'll let you know when you can hear our thrilling exchange and the NJ PTC's explanations of:

The rampant crime...

Out-of-control social diseases decimating humanity...

Children going wild in the streets...

The breakdown of all civilization...

...all caused by the mass media!!

And why colleges should be coerced and intimidated if they let anyone say anything that offends the high arbiters of taste, style, and morality!!

B.D.

The PTC on Culture Wars!

2009-02-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

With apologies to the constant reader - as Stephen King would say - for the lax updates over the past week, I just wanted to announce that the Culture Wars radio show, hosted by yours truly and Ernabel Demillo, will have a special presentation this Thursday. The head of the New Jersey chapter of the Parents Television Council will join us to discuss her organization and their agendas and views of the media.

While this blog had been critical of the group, there is nothing we support more than free speech and the opportunity for everyone to exercise their rights to free expression. Thus, Culture Wars will give the PTC the chance to speak up tomorrow and air their views.

Tune in and decide for yourself!

B.D.

Check it out...!

2009-01-31T09:05:00.000-08:00

A quick apology, loyal readers, for being off the blog for the last couple of days. I just got a moment for an update here, so I wanted to urge everyone of take a look at the blogs I follow and check out the piece on the Fairness Doctrine by Paul Levinson. Or just click here. Outstanding!!

Dr. Levinson, a Fordham Communication professor, author of the Phil D'Amato science fiction novels, and free speech advocate also has a couple of words about the NBC/vegetarian ad. And, most importantly, he has a link to the video of the ad!! Take a look at it, unless you're worried that it might usher in the Apocalypse before 2012.

I don't know about you, but I've been getting more and more of an urge to go to the produce aisle at my grocery store!

B.D.

Go screw yourself with a broccoli!

2009-01-28T01:59:00.000-08:00

The culture wars roll on and on! With the approach of the Super Bowl, we have the approach of more ridiculous advertising controversies. Check it out right here.

Apparently NBC is already trying to prevent any possible trouble with the Super Bowl broadcast by refusing to air an ad for vegetarianism by PETA. Too sexual, they argue. One part of the ad, according to NBC’s interpretation, suggests that an actress is “screwing herself with a broccoli.”

Now, unfortunately, we can’t see this for ourselves and decide whether or not this is appropriate because NBC is letting itself be bullied into acting like our broadcast nannies. We must be protected from ourselves because we are too dumb to handle a simple TV ad, or we are such incompetent parents that we don’t know how to raise our children so they are not scarred and corrupted for life by a vegetarianism ad.

The root of all this, of course, is the fact that Super Bowl broadcasts are now anniversaries of the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” and the Parents Television Council’s reign of terror. Following the Jackson situation, the FCC went psychotic and issued more fines against broadcasters in the following year than fines it had proposed issuing in the previous 10 years. This was all due to the prompting of the members of the PTC.

I am certain that these champions of censorship will soon enough be celebrating their ability to keep more expression they don’t like from the airwaves. Check out their web page and keep an eye on this, I suggest. Or, better yet, since these folks like to start complaint campaigns – the home page of their organization has no fewer than THREE links to file an FCC complaint – maybe people can take the time to send them a message and let them know that Americans don’t appreciate their First Amendment rights being trampled upon by bullies and cheap thugs.

The culture wars, in the meantime, will keep rolling on the web broadcasts of WSPC Culture Wars as well. Every Thursday at noon, Eastern time.

It's OK, it's not your fault...

2009-01-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

OK, I'll admit that this is not my area of training, but I'll voice my opinion on something that sounds highly dubious.

It's something to scratch your head over, apply a little critical thinking, and turn on your B.S. detectors. Check out the story here. An obesity "bug?" Experts tell us yet again that if you're fat, it might not be your fault after all. Maybe you caught a fat bug that inflated you thighs and planted those slack rolls of doughy flab all around your gut.

Hmm...

Here's just one innocent little question: How is it that these fat bugs just happen to cause all that obesity in the U.S. and not other parts of the world? It reminds me of the "you're not to blame if you're fat, it's your genetics" argument. And how come all those fat genes just happen to crowd around the U.S.? Why don't we see more fat genes in the countries of origin providing so many of the various ethnic and racial subcultures of the U.S.? So why are French Americans fatter than the folks in France, or the German Americans or Polish Americans - or what have you - fatter than the people in the gene pool they originate from?

How about a disease that possesses you and makes you incapable of walking to the fresh fruit and vegetable and health food aisle of the supermarket, sending you to the junk food?

Again, hmm...

Oh, and you might ask: What's with the picture of the super fit babe above? (pro bodybuilder Cindy Phillips) Nothing. Just to satisfy prurient interests.

Of course, I hope it doesn't give you psychic scars, self esteem disorders, eating disorders, depression, a bald spot, rashes, hangnails, seasonal winter disorders...

And if you get fat because you spend too much time reading blogs instead of pumping iron in the gym, it's your own damn fault.

I Seek Britney

2009-01-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

Being away from a regular dose of entertainment gossip, I almost lost track of a great Britney Spears story…then almost missed a piece summarizing a pornography study on the FOXSexpert column. The timing of these stories is just perfect and I wanted to comment on them as a follow-up on my previous post praising the timely and thankful rejection of an absurd anti-porn law by the Supreme Court.

Although we’re in the twenty first century, I still feel the urge to scan the headlines every few days in case there might be the public burning of a witch. Or maybe the red-lettering of an adulteress. Today I just got my almost-missed story of something equally as stupid: the brain trust of the Parents Television Council is threatening to file obscenity complaints against radio stations playing Britney Spears’ song “If You Seek Amy.” Now I’ll have my school radio station to play it completely uncut, I think.

Their reasoning is explained here, on their web page. Some delicate, impressionable young child might accidentally be exposed to it while listening to the radio. The horrors of playing a silly double-entendre that most junior high school kids would be embarrassed to say! Most would be embarrassed because it’s so tame and silly, in fact, that other kids might laugh at their lack of sophistication in matters of sex. I know when I was in junior high, or grade school for that matter, that’s probably what would have happened to you. “If You Seek Amy? Come on, you can do better than that!”

Now would I really would urge anyone to check out the Sexpert article’s summary of a study on teen attitudes on pornography. It is brief, it summarizes the study well, and it’s clear enough with its numbered points for even a member of the Parents Television Council to understand. Or maybe they might want to invest time in a second reading. But the point is that if this is how teens react to pornography, it really is an absurd waste of time to listen to the PTC’s harping about the pernicious threat Britney Spears poses for America’s impressionable, innocent young children.

The study is a remarkable outline of what active and critical consumers teens are of pornography. Far from being stupid, mindless, thoughtless sponges that see images in the media and imitate them, teens process information from even the hardest, most explicit pornography “critically, (compare) it to life experiences and information from other sources. Young people are able to evaluate the materials as overstated, distorted or incorrect. The ultimate reaction: They tune out or distance themselves from the source.”

Furthermore, “hardly any of the participants (in the study) considered the pornography actors as celebrities, but rather as ‘cheap’ and ‘ridiculous.’”

Kids, or adults or any of those audience members in whose name the meddling do-gooders of the PTC usually advocate censorship are not as passive, weak, and pliant as the PTC usually argues.

This should be something to think about for all those admiring the PTC for their efforts to protect America’s families: These people think you are stupid, you can’t run your own family or raise your children, and you need the hand of big government bureaucracies to tell you how to live.

So just relax and let the kids listen to Britney!

Regards,
Barna W. Donovan, Ph.D.