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eye WEEKLY                                              March 28, 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper                      .....free every Thursday
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NEWS & VIEWS                                              NEWS & VIEWS

                           V-CHIPS AND DIPS

                                  by
                            PIERRE SAVOIE

The V-chip just makes me laugh. It controls your viewing on scales for 
sex or violence, shutting out the segments that go too high. But 
unlike the color or tint or any other controls which you adjust to 
taste, this innocuous-looking scale doesn't set your choices so much 
as respond to the ratings of someone else!

And since the more sophisticated V-chip proposals will continuously 
rate every 10-second segment, it will be very difficult to second-
guess the evaluators who do the coding, a career in which moralists 
and control-freaks will likely seek employment. The contentious scene 
was blanked, but since you didn't see it, you can't evaluate the 
justness of the original decisions! That is the real evil of 
censorship.

The most telling aspect is that news is not subject to V-chip rating. 
If people really don't want to think about the unpleasant realities of 
current affairs, at least that will be a conscious decision not 
abdicated to a piece of silicon.

But what about commercials? Has no one thought that the possibility of 
locking out commercials, even more than sex or violence, would be a 
boon to television watchers? People could electronically replace the 
screaming exhortations to buy with quiet music, or very short 2- and 
3-minute rock videos, according to taste. Children would clamor less 
for material possessions in the holiday season, so parents' expenses 
would be considerably lightened.

Our whole consumerist mental climate would change -- and then the 
advertisers would clamor about censorship. Still, I can dream that 
maybe, despite advertisers' clout with the media, someone will suggest 
federal legislation requiring a coded signal that distinguishes 
commercials from real programs. Let private enterprise design and 
market the "C-chip", the commercial-sniffing watchdog that switches 
you over to a VCR or a CD player for the duration, letting the people 
choose their own form of intermission. Let the federal regulator know 
that this would be a more socially worthwhile (and popular) kind of 
chip than one that prevents you from having to think about media and 
its content.e

Hop on your soapbox and tell us what's bugging you. We might even run 
your words in this space.

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