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L.A.C.K. & Censoround
May 28, 2004
"Here's a little song I wrote the other day while I was out duck hunting with a judge..."
Eric Idle has written a song in honor of the FCC. I haven't listened to it yet because it's not safe for work, and I am at work. I bet it fucking rocks, though.
[TT] Pythonline via MetaFilter
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
3:10:07 PM
No ads for 'Frontline,' though
Reversing an earlier decision, MTV has decided to air ads for Super Size Me. From today's Studio Briefing:
"MTV, saying that a 'junior-level employee' had made a mistake when he rejected an ad for the theatrical documentary Super Size Me, announced Thursday that the decision had been overruled and that the spot will begin airing tonight (Friday). The channel indicated that the spot would air during a time period when ads for fast-food restaurants were not being carried. A spokesman for distributor Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films said that the companies were 'thrilled' that MTV had 'made this course correction.'"
[TT] Studio Briefing
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
2:16:00 PM
"Once you started it, I don't know where you would end it."
The Evanston (IL) Library Board rejected Mary Beth Schaye's challenge to Pinkerton, Behave. The mother of a three year old, Schaye was upset by an illustration of a robber pointing a gun to a character's head in the children's book. Board members recommended parents pre-screen books they check out for their kids. Schaye responded:
"I don't know anybody who does that. People who are more conscientious than me, who are better mothers than I am, are not pre-reading the books they read to their children."
[TT] Evanston Review via Google News
[EDITOR'S NOTE] Updated post's formatting
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
8:59:00 AM
"What comic doesn't aspire to appear on C-Span?"
Stand-up comedian and Mad Magazine senior editor Joe Raiola is beginning to develop a cottage industry for himself with his one-man shows Almost Obscene and The Joy of Censorship, the latter of which even has its own newsletter. Needless to say, his anti-censorship campaign has made him very popular with librarians.
[TT] Troy Record via Google News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
8:48:30 AM
May 27, 2004
"...a response to the heightened sensitivities..."
Fearing the possibility of FCC fines for indecent programming, the University of Rochester (NY) has switched its college radio station to a pre-taped format so the school can screen the content before it airs.
[TT] Democrat & Chronicle via Metafilter
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
12:23:45 PM
Michael Moore cancels his TRL appearance in protest
MTV declined to air ads for the documentary Super Size Me because the film is "disparaging to fast-food restaurants," the movie's distributors said. An MTV spokesperson responded it was the distributors who refused to let MTV air the ad.
[TT] Reuters via Washington Post
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
8:53:11 AM
May 26, 2004
"Section 215 gives the government new powers to ask for and receive records in your library."
My wife Jennifer and I had breakfast with Jessamyn of librarian.net fame and her s.o. Greg. We ate at Mosaic, a cool little restaurant around the corner from our apartment that specializes in waffle sandwiches. (Yes, waffles stuffed with sandwich fixins.) Infinitely excellent.
I mention this not just to show that I'm hob-nobbing with famous librarians, but to mention Affronts to Library Liberty: Legal, Ethical, and Practical Responses, Jessamyn's speech on the USA PATRIOT Act that she gave to the MLA Conference on Sunday.
[TT] librarian.net
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
3:21:00 PM
"I assume that that's implying that he has a dirty prostitute."
A Tazmanian senator is questioning why Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification gave The Cat in the Hat a "G" rating when it contains what he felt was sexual innuendo. A spokesperson for the office said that sometimes a hoe is just a hoe.
[TT] The Mercury & ABC Online via Google News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
2:03:40 PM
"It's about doing the right thing before almighty God."
The flap over Eat Me has prompted Marion County, FL, to review the Public Library Advisory Board's policy-making power.
[TT] Ocala Star-Banner via Google News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
1:59:00 PM
May 22, 2004
"That two books out of an estimated 400,000 could be directly responsible for the moral destruction of our community is a bit of a reach."
Linda Jaivin chronicles her battle to keep her book Eat Me on the shelves of a Florida library, after an 83-year-old patron and the library's director took offense to it. "A local shock jock warned that on Judgement Day, Jesus would be questioning [library director Julie] Sieg about the pornography she'd made available to little children."
[TT] Sydney Morning Herald via Blog of a Bookslut
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
3:35:00 PM
May 21, 2004
"Are book burnings next?"
Here's Bill Hill's story of Rio Rancho (NM) High School, who fired a teacher, ceased teaching poetry, cancelled the poetry club, and ordered a student to destroy her poems. Why? Because said poems were considered anti-American by the school principal. Moreover, the teacher can't get a new job because the principal is holding his credentials and refusing to release them. Ah, freedom in the land of the free...
[TT] Daytona Beach News-Journal via Blog of a Bookslut
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
3:28:50 PM
May 20, 2004
"No one wants to ban books, and I don't either."
Mary Beth Schaye is appealing the Evanston (IL) Library Board's decision to keep in the children's section Steven Kellogg's Pinkerton, Behave!, the story of a dog with an obedience problem who ultimately saves his owners from a robber. She and seven other area parents and teachers filed a request to remove the book because they found images of a woman in bed being held at gunpoint "objectionable." Schaye wrote in her appeal, "Pinkerton saved the day for his owners, but what about the children who don't have dogs?"
[TT] Evanston Review via Google News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
4:20:00 PM
"...keeping the ban ... no longer met a 'pressing social need'..."
The European Court of Human Rights rebuked the French government for banning Le Grand Secret, a book about Francois Mitterrand's fight with cancer, until after the ex-French president had died.
[TT] Expatica via Google News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
4:12:44 PM
May 11, 2004
"It just has to do with decency and respect."
Federal Way (WA) School Superintendent Tom Murphy has pulled Sijie Dai's anti-censorship book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress from the ninth grade and demanded that teachers present the school board their reading lists for approval after a student and his mother found the novel's sexual references offensive.
[TT] The News Tribune via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
4:41:00 PM
May 10, 2004
"We try to be more inclusive than exclusive."
Kristine and Paul Claybrook sent to the Mid-Columbia Library District in Washington state written requests such children's books that feature gay characters as King & King and My Two Uncles be moved to a different section of the stacks. After a review, the library decided to keep the books where they are.
Said Kristine Claybook, "It's trying to push this kind of lifestyle on people."
Responded sociology professor Pepper Schwartz, "The jump from reading a book about tolerance to trying homosexuality is not clear to me."
[TT] Tri-City Herald via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
11:09:00 AM
May 7, 2004
"...hypocrisy in the form of hiding behind morality as a justification for censorship..."
A reader of The Tennesseean asked columnist David Green why the newspaper refused to run the "son of a bitch" Doonesbury strip, yet runs ads for strip clubs.
[TT] The Tennesseean via Romenesko
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
5:25:00 PM
"...he was upset Miramax had made the film..."
Michael Moore said during a CNN interview that he knew a year ago that Disney would refuse to release Fahrenheit 911, even though he raised the controversy just this week. I guess negotiations with other distributors had stalled or something.
[TT] The Independent via The Morning News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
12:15:00 PM
May 5, 2004
"...looking forward to resolving this amicably..."
Disney figurehead Michael Eisner is trying to prevent Miramax from releasing of Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 911, which explores the Bush family connections to Saudi Arabia, before the 2004 presidential election. While many are crying "censorship," it's probably more that Michael Eisner hates Harvey Weinstein as much as he hates Steve Jobs and will do anything to get Miramax to follow Pixar out of the the Disney company. This is because Michael Eisner is clinically insane.
[TT] Media Bulletin via Google News
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
6:43:39 PM
May 3, 2004
"I can think of a lot of workers, plumbers, who are working and expose their buttocks."
A Louisiana state rep has introduced a bill that will outlaw low-cut jeans. Anyone caught "exposing skin or intimate clothing" would be fined $500 and/or sentenced to six months in jail.
[TT] Azcentral.com via MoJo Blog
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
5:28:24 PM
May 2, 2004
"I believe that children are harmed by some images and speech and need protection."
Marjorie Heins reviews Kevin Saunders' Saving Our Children from the First Amendment, in which the author argues for a greater restriction on First Amendment rights for minors to protect them from violent images and profanity. Saunders replied to the review.
[TT] Free Expression Policy Project via LISNews.com
posted by Chris Zammarelli at
3:30:00 PM
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