Madonna-Britney kiss photo unnecessary
It was apparently not enough to subject your subscribers to a photo of Madonna kissing Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards right after it happened. This lame grab for attention by the “artists” and MTV was plenty offensive the first time back in 2003. Flash forward to Mark Brown’s actually quite correct critique (“Outrageous or outdated?” Sept. 8) of the Video Music Awards’ downward spiral into insignificance, and we have to endure it yet again.
This time the photo was published on the front page of the Spotlight section, and in even larger, full-color glory. Couldn’t the point of the article have been made that Britney is a hopeless has-been without the picture? I don’t need another reason to hide the family’s daily newspaper from my kids’ questioning eyes, and I would like to think the kitchen table is a safe place to leave my newspaper.
When some tragedy happens, or a complicated situation makes the news, then yes, it is my job as a parent to explain things to my children as they learn how to understand and deal with the world. However, envelope-pushing attempts to shock and titillate by the music video industry are not news, and not something I want to have to explain.
Keri Brehm, Castle Rock
Keri: I would think, if you are truly interested in helping your kids get a better understanding of the world (including the corporate music industry), that you wouldn't allow a silly little picture of two, fairly beautiful women, kissing to scare you off. You would use it to demonstrate that in the corporate world, and in the interest of selling a product with little or no value, the best way is through 'shlock and aw' (as in: awww isn't that cute?)
I think you are being way too sensitive and you are denying reality to your children.
Also, and more to the point: how old are your children? How often to they read the newspaper? Which sections do you give to them? Do their questions about other people bother you? Are you afraid to answer legitimate questions, posed by young minds?
Ado about nothing! Everyone knows that newspapers these day bare little resemblance to the hard core reporting, exposing wrong, championing right and informing the public of things they need to know about those who represent them. Sensationalism is the new religion they promote, shamelessly, to support their financial bottom line. It's a fad they have been duped by in their ignorance of what the people deserve from the once repected Fourth Estate.
Posted by Allen Campbell on September 15, 2007 09:57 AMFake outrage, is what some call this.
Posted by Sharon B. on September 15, 2007 10:10 AMIt doesn't seem likely that the media would go in the direction is has unless it was pushed by public demand. The cable industry has done a great public service with its CSPAN programming, but I don't think CSPAN would survive for long in the for profit world. In the for profit world, it is difficult if not impossible to ignore the choices the general public makes, unless you are willing to be satisfied with a small niche market. I think there are a lot of individuals in the media who would greatly improve the media if it were not for the powers that own the media who are bottom line oriented.
Maybe some day those who yearn for a media with loftier goals than the current one could organize, which is another way of saying form a union, and make enough noise to at least get a parallel media with higher ideals than the bottom line.
I find myself wondering how the cable industry came to create CSPAN and if there may be a lesson there which would be of value to those interested in improving the media. It strikes me as a great anomaly, a rose in a garden of weeds. It is quite disappointing that while the cable industry provides three different CSPAN programs, that same industry doesn't find a way to make the third one available to most viewers.
Posted by Truth on September 15, 2007 10:27 AMYet another person who CHOOSES to be offended...and rant and rave about...over things that really don't affect them.
Apparently, Keri is one of those parents that want their children to grow up with their hands in the sand..unaware of the fact that people are different.
Beware everyone, some day all those home schooled children are going to grow up and be out in the world with the rest of us and they are not going to know how to cope or deal with anything that their limited experiences prepared them for.
Posted by Thomas on September 15, 2007 10:03 PMYet another lamo who is offended by everything. Please stop trying to make everything that we adults read, watch and hear be appropriate for children. Do your duty as a parent and restrict what your children see and stop trying to make society be the parents of your children. My question to you is this, are you too stupid or too lazy to control the media content that your children view?
Posted by Sean on September 16, 2007 01:10 PMI hereby declare myself OK with being subjected to photos of women swapping tongue. I'll take the regular bulldog edition, Keri can have the puckered up prune sububan special.
Posted by on September 16, 2007 11:06 PMKeri, did no one tell you that you have the right to not have to endure anything if you do not want to?
Posted by Allen Campbell on September 17, 2007 12:45 PMThis presents parents a good opportunity to discuss real life.
If my daughter was little and saw this I would explain "Schitk" a term for performers who do something to get noticed. A term for those who have a persona that they project, which is probably not the way they really are, like say Dolly Parton.
We could have a great time looking for more of this stuff.
Posted by Sharon B. on September 17, 2007 12:53 PMI pop in and have discussions on these boards a few times a week, often it seems with James Jones, Grouch, Allen Campbell and a few others. I noticed today that this letter writer has the same unusual name spelling as I do. I thought I would clarify that it is not me. I don’t have kids, but if I did I doubt I would not feel the need to shield them from pictures of women kissing, and if I did want to shield them from anything, it would be my responsibility, not the media’s.
Posted by Keri on September 17, 2007 02:05 PMAllen said ” Everyone knows that newspapers these day bare little resemblance to the hard core reporting, exposing wrong, championing right and informing the public of things they need to know about those who represent them”
I found that a very interesting comment, since it parallels the drive of marketing corporations in current politics. They identified the “values and lifestyles” voters as being an emerging demographic that was spread across many different traditional groups, but which would be vote for people that gave them what they wanted – rather than for somebody who stood for a specific traditional policy.
So politicians stopped “leading” and started adopting whatever their polls and focus-groups said were currently the preferences amongst “values and lifestyles” voters.
The media use the same marketing and public relations firms, and so do exactly the same. Fox led the way on this – they give the viewer what the viewer wants to watch, not what some expert or leader thinks the public should see or read. So they entertain rather than inform.
If two hot girls kissing entertains the crowd and keeps people exposed to the advertising, then the mission is accomplished as far as Murdock is concerned.
Where did people get the idea that they have a right not to be offended? In fact our constitution protects our right to offend others (free speech), not the other way around. If you are offended by the Rocky, then your recourse is to cancel your subscription.
Besides, it can't be that hard to explain to your kids that Britney Spears is not a role model -- it's a lesson they need to learn regardless of what's printed in the Rocky.
Posted by karen on September 18, 2007 11:26 AMKaren, A friend of mine is offended by the sticky posts on the paper, so she said she will not buy anything from these advertisers and she takes the stickers off and throws them away.
I then asked her which companies had the stickers, which will she boycott, and she said "I don`t know, I threw them away". Now that is funny.
Posted by Sharon B. on September 18, 2007 12:43 PMyou wanna see some real kissing you should see when me and 'An American' are in the middle of our couch olympics! That man can make my toes curl!
Posted by Keith on September 19, 2007 07:20 AM