CitizenLink, a website sponsored by right wing cavaliers Focus on the Family, covered the senate hearings on indecency in two recent editorials.
Wendy Cloyd, assistant editor for CitizenLink, began with the first story with the rather slanted remark, “Not surprisingly, industry experts say it's all up to parents.”
In her first story, Cloyd focused primarily on who should take responsibility, and subsequently blame, for what children see on television. As the story reports, Jack Valenti, former chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, told the Senate committee that it's really up to parents to control what their children see on television.
The report said that Valenti suggestedthat the Ad Council be given the task of educating parents about controls already available, such as V-Chip technology.
"These messages will let parents know, without question or doubt," he said, "that they have total power in their hands right now to control every TV program that enters their home by whatever method of delivery they have chosen."
In opposition to Valenti, the report said that Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council (PTC), remarked that by placing the entire responsibility on parents does nothing to solve the real problems faced by families.
"The V-Chip is a dodge," he said, pointing to a PTC report last year that found the rating system to be "inconsistent, inaccurate, arbitrary and capricious."
"Virtually every person testifying before you today represents a vested special interest and will say and spend whatever it takes to protect their special interest," he said. "We speak on behalf of another special interest altogether: the vast majority of Americans sick and tired of the sewage being poured out of the airwaves, or on cable programs they are being forced to underwrite."
CitizenLink was quick to use their own Senior Analyst for Media and Sexuality at Focus on the Family Action, Daniel Weiss. Weiss, not surprisingly, said the industry also needs to do its part.
The report has him going on to say that "the TV industry continues to promote the absurd idea that only parents have any responsibility for protecting children from offensive content," he said. "This is as ludicrous as saying, 'If I punch you in the nose, it's your job to not bleed.' "
Pat Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (another conservative group), pushed CitizenLink and Focus on the Family’s cause by commenting that if the industry wants parents to have control, there's one obvious solution.
"If they're so concerned about putting the responsibility on parents to control the kids, then let parents decide what comes into their homes," he told CitizenLink, "not the cable companies."
Not surprisingly, Cloyd and Citizenlink believe it’s all up to the industry.
CitizenLink’s second story looked at the Senate hearing concerning the Internet.
The report said that Dr. James Weaver III, professor of communication and psychology at Virginia Tech, called the ease with which children can access pornography a "public health crisis" and advocated that Congress treat it as such.
"In a culture where we put warning labels on everything from hair dryers to coffee cups to music CDs to theatrical release movies," he said, "essentially, no one provides consumers with any warnings or information about pornography."
The report then cited Paul Cambria, general counsel for the Adult Freedom Foundation, arguing that the industry he represents is perfectly legal under the First Amendment, but said his clients would be supportive of age-verification systems to keep porn out of the hands of kids.
The story then said that Focus on the Family’s Weiss countered that Cambria’s claim stands in contrast to the Free Speech Coalition, which fought against age-verification systems specified in the Child Online Protection Act.
"It was disappointing that not one senator challenged the porn lawyer's claim that his clients sell legal products," he said. "The Supreme Court has ruled that hardcore pornography — showing actual sex acts — has no First Amendment protection."
CitizenLink gave their man Weiss the last word, as he claimed that only successful prosecutions will get the industry's attention.
"When the major players are taken down," he said, "we will see a corresponding reduction in the availability of illegal pornography in this country."
