SuperBowl Censorship
... their moral duty to place almost complete responsibility into the hands of media executives for the poor upbringing of children. It must be the networks’ faults that children have grown up immorally and irrationally in this world today, right? But, are the parents anywhere in sight, whether physically or consciously, when these images make themselves prominent in a child’s developing brain? Having been the oldest in a family of three children, I have come to realize that sex, violence, and other forms of corruption are inevitable when it comes to the media; in other words, there is no escape. However, I was raised with enough values that have successfully guided me through the realms of lewd entertainment due to a proper upbringing from my parents and not solely the television. Parental guidance is the strongest sociological factor of persuasion for a developing child during these younger years. Goldsmith states later in his article that “the display of such low, debased behavior did more to make [Jackson] look desperate for attention than it did to reinforce her image as a rebel” (Mises Institute). This assertion may be true, although it is undeniably true that parents can teach children a sense of true self-respect and honor which is sometimes lacked by the stars. Americans have become so apathetic about raising their own children that they let the television act as a replacement, often leading to disastrous results in which the media gets blamed. Doesn’t this lead back to square one? Why should we pay more attention to a slight mammary exposure than to how parents can explain to kids that acts like those seen during the Super Bowl are simply for entertainment purposes? In no way am I attempting to make excuses for such gimmicks performed by such strong influential figures. I am merely stating that parents must raise their children confidently and effectively without allowing the media to over rule this. In his essay entitled “Watch and Learn,” Gregg Easterbrook states that “studies do show that upbringing is more determinant of…behavior than any other factor” (647). Children see certain images or ideas being portrayed in movies, television, and music that they will want to emulate, but with proper parental interjection and moral upbringing, these indecencies would be quickly eliminated from a child’s depiction of right and wrong. At this year’s Super Bowl, an ad featuring a “buxom young woman whose flimsy top repeatedly comes undone while testifying before ‘broadcast censorship hearings’” was aired for GoDaddy.com, an Internet domain-name registrar (WorldNetDaily.com). The commercial, meant to poke fun at last years wardrobe malfunction, contained a message that censorship is a highly noticeable factor regarding what is actually aired on the networks, according to ad-agency executive Paul Cappelli (WorldNetDaily.com). The buzz surrounding this latest installment of risky material involving Super Bowl advertising is placed among ...