Charles Foster Kane: I hope I haven't made a mistake, Jedediah. It is the dramatic critic you want to be, isn't it?
Jedediah Leland: You know that's right.
- No apologies: Jordan School Board’s bad lesson - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
"In the first place, God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made school boards." — Mark Twain
If the members of the Jordan School Board really think they owe the community an apology for the recent Bingham High School production of the play "Dead Man Walking," then we should expect a few more heartfelt mea culpas from the district as well.
They can say they are sorry for forcing their students to study trigonometry and chemistry, because those are hard subjects. They can apologize for teaching geography and physics, because it might cause students to question their belief that they are the center of the universe.
And they really have a lot of groveling to do to make up for their entire athletic program, which encourages rivalries and facilitates levels of violence that, in any other context, would get you arrested.
The unseemly show of contrition put on Tuesday by a majority of the Jordan School Board members is a sickening example of how even some people who are in the education establishment don’t have a clue what education is for. [Read the rest ...]
- The market rules: FCC should lighten up - Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Suppose, instead of taking the Supreme Court’s hint that it clarify just what it means when it says that vulgar language and naked bodies are banned from broadcast TV during certain hours, the Federal Communications Commission just threw in the towel and said, like Cole Porter, "Anything goes."
But anyone with a remote control doesn’t have to suppose. All they have to do is flip through the channels a few times. Or stay up past 10 p.m., when the FCC’s strictest safe haven rules don’t apply even to over-the-air TV signals. That’s where we will find an almost unimaginable number of offerings that, while often crude and unparalleled in the annals of time-wasting, expose our ears and eyes to very little in the way of obscene language or nudity. [Read the rest ...]
- Government must continue to control decency standards on public airwaves - Deseret News Editorial
... Rational and thoughtful debate, lawfulness and good citizenship in general depend upon rules of civility. Abusive and profane language, inappropriate sexual portrayals and a host of other behavior, including racially derogatory remarks, degrade civility even, under many circumstances, in the context of entertainment. ...
- Still up in the air on 'indecency' - Los Angeles Times Editorial
A Supreme Court decision on broadcast nudity and expletives was correct but settles little.
- 'Fleeting' fines ruled out. What now FCC police? - USA Today Editorial
... Given the easy access to almost anything on the Internet, and given how broadcast television is no longer the only game in town, it makes little sense for the FCC to devote large amounts of time and resources trying to recreate a "safe harbor" that no longer exists. The regulators could end their heavy-handed policies and few viewers would notice much of a difference.
- Keep the public airwaves clean - Opposing View, USA Today
... The public airwaves are just that — public. The networks are licensed to use them with a moral and legal obligation to provide the public with decent content. The American people overwhelmingly agree. ...
