Culture Clips - December 20, 2005

Who Defines “Family” Values?

The Family Friendly Programming Forum consists of several dozen major television advertisers that urge the entertainment industry to build "a commitment to and understanding of quality family entertainment." It has just announced its "Family Television Awards." To be sure, what the Forum has chosen to salute is far less offensive than so much of what is oozing out of our TV sets, but is it "family friendly"? You, dear reader, decide for yourself.

Their best drama series selection was ABC's "Lost," a gripping and popular show, but also incredibly violent. Scenes depicting torture and people being destroyed by explosives, the kind that leave pieces of flesh dangling on the shoulders of survivors, are a staple. Maybe for older teens this is acceptable. But for grade-school children? The Family Friendly Programming Forum says it is.

They awarded best comedy honors to CBS's "King of Queens," centered on a married couple living in New York. It's another popular show, and often very funny and innocent. But not always. And that's the problem: You never know what you're going to get when you turn it on. One episode this season featured the wife taking stripper pole-dancing lessons to spice up their sex life. She was always fully clothed, of course, but there was that predictably racy dialogue that accompanied the storyline. Does this qualify as family programming in your book?

…What do these awards say about the mindset of the TV czars — the producers, the carriers and the underwriters — and their ability to define "family" TV? Six major corporations own virtually everything aired on broadcast television as well as two-thirds of the cable channels, but it's clear these companies don't have a clue about what families want on television. Worse still, they don't want families deciding for themselves what is, and isn't, appropriate family viewing. That corporate community, along with its myriad of lobbying firms and front groups, is zestily lobbying Washington to stop decency enforcement on the public airwaves as well as cable choice on cable networks. Parents are desperately trying to shield their young children from horrific violence, vulgar language and sperm counts. Nothing doing, says the industry. We control the vertical and horizontal. We know what's best for families.

Brent Bozell
Parents Television Council
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/brentbozell/2005/12/16/179524.html

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Steamy Teens in Tampa

More than the weather gets hot in Tampa, Fla.

A survey of the Hillsborough County school district has revealed nearly half of high school students and one in five middle school students claim to have had sexual intercourse.

And this is surprising news to many Hillsborough parents.

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey, compiled in four thick volumes by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, polled more than 5,000 randomly-selected Hillsborough students, finding that nearly one-third said they were propositioned to buy, bought or sold drugs while at school. More than 9 percent of male students and nearly 12 percent of female students said they had been forced to have sex…

Sex educators promised that more information about sex would mean, if not less sex, then "safer sex." The CDC survey reveals the opposite to be true with younger kids having sex and condom use declining with age, dropping from 78 percent usage in eighth grade to 61.4 percent for high school seniors.

Leaving out the emotional and spiritual damage caused by early sexual activity (which is significant), the physical and societal consequences of teen sex are considerable. According to a Heritage Foundation policy paper by Robert E. Rector, sexually transmitted diseases, including incurable viral infections, are now epidemic. While we contemplate a bird flu pandemic, 3 million teenagers contract STDs every year, afflicting about one in four sexually active teens.

Rector writes about research that has shown a correlation between sexual activity among adolescents and the likelihood they will engage in other high-risk behavior, such as tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use. Pediatrics magazine (vol. 87, No. 2 Feb 1, 1991, pp 141-147) reports that sexually active boys aged 12 through 16 are four times more likely to smoke and six times more likely to consume alcohol than those who describe themselves as virgins.

Cal Thomas
Townhall
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/calthomas/2005/12/15/179349.html

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Golden Mitt

Could life imitate art? Possibly, if Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has anything to say about it. Romney recently paid a visit to the Golden State to participate in the meeting of the Republican Governors’ Association of which he was named chairman.

I heard him speak at a meeting of the Fairbanks Republican Women Federated (FRWF), one of the most successful groups of its kind. His movie-star-handsome looks render him instantly appealing, at least superficially, in a state like California.

But Romney's potential appeal to residents of our most populous state runs deeper than appearances. Although he is increasingly socially conservative, Romney's background and governing style — not to mention the fawning profiles that have graced the pages of both liberal and conservative magazines — suggest he might command support in California.

For one thing, the Massachusetts governor is a minority in more ways than one. As a Mormon and as a Republican in a Democratic state, he can relate to feelings of alienation from the mainstream, an ability that will promote at least a perception of his tolerance and openness — both musts in California. Perceptions matter — again, especially in California — and anything that may undercut a simplistic dismissal of him as Yet Another White Man will help. Perhaps unwittingly, Romney uses phrases like "tiny minority position" to describe his political situation.

Furthermore, his ability to run a state successfully despite the overwhelming political odds stacked against him will stand him well in a state where another Republican governor faces a similar predicament. The Massachusetts legislature is 85-percent Democratic; its entire congressional delegation are Democrats. Romney calls himself "a red speck in a blue state," which is another way of saying that he's able to maintain his redness while still working with the blue around him.

And indeed the governor's experience as chief executive of Massachusetts has been largely successful. He touts practical solutions that he arrived at in conjunction with the legislature, such as reforming the way the homeless are sheltered — namely, scrapping the wasteful hotel program and helping them find long-term residences — and jiggering the educational system to foster progress in math and science (on a 2005 national test, Bay State students ranked first or tied for first in math and most other subjects).

Moreover, while the governor often describes himself as a social conservative (his abortion position — a promise not to violate the state's "status quo" — is a matter of some controversy), he displays a pragmatic side even when it comes to divisive issues like stem-cell research.

Michael M. Rosen
National Review
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/rosen200512150849.asp