🚀 go-pugleaf

normlehf@pacbell.net wrote the quoted material below:

" I am not one for censorship. And I probably wouldn't want to tell this
" newsgroup of some of the private entertainments I have enjoyed. But I
" believe there ought to be some sense of decorum in broadcast entertainment.

I'm of two minds on this.  

On the one mind, I know that broadcasting incites people to action,
otherwise advertisers wouldn't pay money to stations to induce people to
buy their products.  People do copy what they see/hear in the broadcast
media. 

A classic example was a few years ago when every radio and TV talkshow was
harrassed by post-pubescent males yelling "Howard Stern" at the talkhost
the moment they put the call on the air.  Surely, this was not a grand
coincidence.  I have no doubt that if a morning radio show has that much
effect, a radio host suggesting a person go out and kill someone would
probably get one or two in the audience to do such a thing. 

On the other mind, I think that important topics are discussed in the
broadcast media that were never talked about before, thanks to people
breaking ground in taboo areas.  I remember back in 1968 or 69 when rape
was mentioned for the first time in prime time TV in the courtroom drama
"Judd for the Defense."  It was shocking, but I have no doubt that it
allowed women who had been raped to be more open about it and seek help. 

I know it's hard to think of a Morning Zoo type program as being
ground-breaking in any meaningful way, but it might be better to let them
have a go at it than to suffer the alternative of no ground-breaking
speech. 

But rest-assured, KQED will probably continue to out-rate KYLD for some
time to come.  

-- 
(C) 1998                                     Meet someone new at SF Games!
David Kaye                           http://www.wco.com/~dk/gameindex.html
dk at wco.com