Saturday, January 05, 2002

 

Censorship revisited

I can understand why the media wants to/has been asked to censor certain war- and security-related issues. I don't agree with it at all, but I understand. However, I do not understand why the American people are, presumably, supposed to forget that Hillary Clinton was practically booed off the stage during the Concert for New York City.

Many of you probably remember that debacle, when the people at the benefit concert organized by Paul McCartney and aired on VH-1 made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that they didn't want the former first lady on the stage. But the concert was reaired on Christmas Day -- without the boos.

It's anyone's guess as to why VH-1 decided to dub out the boos and make it look as if Hillary was welcome at the event. But here are some facts to make the guesses more educated. VH-1 is owned by Viacom. Viacom also owns Simon & Schuster Books. Simon & Schuster just paid Hillary $8 million to write a book.

In and of itself, that scenario just looks like a business protecting its interests. But look a little further. Among Viacom's other holdings are MTV Nickelodeon and Noggin, Comedy Central, Black Entertainment Television, Showtime, the Movie Channel, TNN, and Country Music Television. Viacom owns Paramount Studios, Blockbuster Video, Outdoor Systems billboards, the Star Trek franchise, and King World, distributors of such TV staples as Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Hollywood Squares, Martha Stewart and Oprah. In broadcast television it owns the UPN network and a little network you may have heard of: CBS.

Looks as if Viacom has all its demographic bases covered, doesn't it?

So, while on the surface it may seem that dubbing out a few boos to make a senator look good isn't all that bad, there are more important questions that arise from the incident. The most of important of which are: What does Viacom want us to see and not see, and to what lengths will they go to make it happen?

posted by Anne 1/05/2002 06:25:00 PM