joeware - never stop exploring... :)

I lived in Indiana for a while when I was kid, I remember a few things. Riding in a trailer behind a lawn tractor, big fields of something green, and a pool table that I couldn’t see the top of. Later when I had grown up (or more accurately was older) I learned from my mom that the green was soy bean fields and that the pool table belonged to our only neighbor (I guess only one for miles or something) and that they were from Texas and my brother Mike and I picked up a serious Texas drawl from them because we were at that early critical age where we were learning to properly communicate. I have found that I still to this day drop into a drawl occasionally if I am around folks with some amount of a Texas or Southern accent. It is sort of a lazy accent and very easy to fall into.

Anyway, I have to say I am glad we moved away based on what I read today… This just cracks me up.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/13556262.htm

The station said it would not broadcast “The Book of Daniel,” which debuts Friday, because of complaints from viewers.

What about the people who wanted to see the show or the ones that didn’t know and didn’t have a chance to make a decision?

Duane Lammers, WTWO’s general manager, said in a statement Wednesday that he was exercising the station’s right to reject network programming.
“I will not allow them to make unilateral decisions affecting our viewers,” he said. “If my action causes people in our community to pay more attention to what they watch on television, I have accomplished my mission.”

But it is ok for him to do so?

What ever happened to allowing viewers to choose by changing the channel if they are offended? I don’t expect that anyone would be FORCED to watch it unless this happens to be the only channel in the region and even then, there is the off button. What if a bunch of loud crackpots had started complaining about when they aired Friends or the evening news? Would this guy have folded and not broadcast that either? I highly doubt it. Had he said, this programming is simply against my beliefs I would have had at least a little respect for him, to say that he is doing it for the viewers is hogwash and is an attempt to disassociate himself from the decision because he didn’t do it for himself, he did it for the children, err I mean the viewers. Assuming of course the viewers are too retarded to make the decision to watch it for themselves.

Here is the censorship broadcast from the American Family Association

http://www.afa.net/petitions/issuedetail.asp?id=175

I can’t seem to find the part where they recommend that their “followers” not watch it or that they should watch it and think of the teachings of their Christ the Lord. Only that it should be taken off the air. I find it curious how they try to push the homophobe button by directly point out it was written by a homosexual. The only thing I get out of that whole thing is that they feel their followers are so stupid that they need to be told what they can and can’t watch.

From here you can send an email petition

https://secure.afa.net/afa/afapetition/takeaction.asp?id=175

The message I sent through it, if it makes it, is not exactly what I think they wanted me to send. To make sure it got through the way I wanted it though, I did send an additional copy myself through mail servers I control to NBC.

From: joe [mailto:joe@xxxxxxx.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 7:37 AM
To: ‘nbcshows@xxxxxxx.com’
Subject: NBC Show “The Book of Daniel”

Note this is a duplicate of an email I sent through the website (https://secure.afa.net/afa/afapetition/takeaction.asp?id=175). Due to the actions of the group running this website, I do not have faith that the comments will be sent unedited so I just wanted to make sure they got through one way or the other.

================

Dear Chairman Wright:

I am disappointed that the AFA has a burr up its butt about homosexuals and feel they are justified in trying to get their minions to try and censor a show that others may want to watch. I find it hilarious that they even have an email campaign and prefilled in website to try and kill the show. Note that I am using their own web site to send this positive email to you.

I find it telling that instead of informing their members to not watch the show or better yet, to watch the show and remember the lord’s teachings they instead feel the need to take the show off the air as if the followers of Christ were so stupid they wouldn’t be able to judge for themselves whether a show is worth watching or not. Who is the AFA to tell me I am too stupid to make my own decisions?

I ask you to inform all affiliates that if they bow down to the pressure from these unAmerican whiners who do not believe in free speech or the American way they might as well just stop being an affiliate because they have been shown that they can be trusted to censor material based on a small group of people whining.

People have a choice on whether or not they want to watch a specific show. If the general populace finds that they do not like this show, I am sure it will show up in the broadcast numbers/ratings. All these boneheads have done is make it so the show won’t necessarily be watched because people want to watch it. They have drawn attention to it so people will watch it just to see why the AFA has their panties in a bunch. Certainly I wasn’t planning on watching until I saw this, now I find I have to watch it just to see what the hubbub is about and will miss Sister Act on TBS. If this is an NBC mechanism to get free advertising, kudos to you for such an interesting mechanism.