The "strippers throat cut" was on NCIS and wasn't actually cut. The scene was on a webcam and made to look real but was staged (special FX knife).

(I watch to much television....)

Anyway the point is - if the PTC had continued to watch the episode instead of turning of to write their indignations, they would have seen this.

American terrestrial television is repressed, but a disturbing repression. Blood, gore, violence - show it all.
But flash a boob ? Oh the horrors !

usa, what else do you expect. All virgins and saints. LOL. It's more interesting that they prefer their kids watching throat cuts than a bit of skin or god forbit a naked woman or, oh no, sex scenes. Again LOL.

Well, Richard, i see you got a kick out of the posts on "More Sex on US Screens" so much that you decided to start another controversial post.

i have no problem with the corpses. If it's a crime show, it's not promoting killing or murder. It's about finding justice. same with wars. The news coverage on wars shows the heroism of the fallen soldiers.

now you're gonna say, "hey, is that Brian, the crazy Christian guy? how dare he condone sex but not violence?" The problem with the sex is that it promotes sex out of marriage.unbiblical. But you already know that. The shows in this survey are crime shows, which i don't particularly like, but don't loathe.They don't promote violence. there about fighting for something right. When a show comes out promoting murder, rape, and violent crimes, then i will condone it.

I live in the US and there is more and more allowances on late night tv in regards to sex and voilence. Do I care? No. Why? Because it's on at freaking 10pm at night! AND I can choose to either watch it, flip the channel or turn the tv off entirely.

As a parent my daughter has an appropiate bedtime, so she doesn't see much of this, but then again I've never sheltered her much from violence anyway. It's a story, it's make believe and to try and let your kid think we live in some sterile world is an injustice. Yes, there are limits of violence I will let her watch - horror movies are not appropiate for her yet, but one day she'll want to watch them and I'll be there to say - OK. I also don't hide shows from her that insinuate that people are having sex, we have an open relationship and all subjects are up for discussion.

What I don't understand are these people who feel they need to be our morality parents. I think we should be able to decide what we want to watch and what our children will watch. Children will find a way to watch whatever they want, but at least it's up to the parent to try and guide them. I'm so sick of the laziness in people to be responsible for their own actions. Then you have these other people who have nothing better to do than complain and impose their view of right and wrong onto everyone else.

"The news coverage on wars shows the heroism of the fallen soldiers." - What? I don't know what images you've been seeing, but the ones I've seen from the wars in my lifetime are horrific, wasteful and often futile. I haven't seen many heroic corpses, only in the movies.

Meli - fantastic comment at the end there, and I totally agree.

Nice post. Well said!

Here in Denmark we don't really have much censored. We don’t even have a rating system on TV. Before news items like the one you mentioned in the post our news speaker will probably say: "Some people might find these next pictures a bit harsh."

Before movies on television a speaker says: "Small children should not watch this movie." That's it. Nothing more. I love it. No fuzz. Short guidelines – in other words: You are intelligent enough to make the choice yourself.

I don’t even remember ever seeing a discussion about it here. Not to rub your noses in it or anything – just thought you would find it interesting.

Simpsons TV-speaker: "The preceding cartoon contained scenes of violence and should not have been viewed by young children."

Former wrestler Mick Foley has an interesting section in his second book (Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling, avalible in finer bookstores everywhere, shameless plug!) that describes in detail the double standards, lies and, at times, utter insanity that hounds the Parent Watchdog Groups.
In it, he describes the hatred these groups had for his profesion, how they hound televised wrestling for it's depictions of violence, sex and foul language, while at the same time ignoring more apropriate targets (Home Alone premotes violece much more than any episode of WWE Raw for example). It is a great read and gives an increadle history of the watchdog movement and its founders (they're not saints, let me just say that!)

I agree totally with Richard that the thing to do here is for networks to give content descriptors for these kinds of shows, not censor them (or ask them to self-censor themselves). Give parents the information and let _them_ make the description. (If the parent feels they need to pre-watch the show to decide, then good for them. If the parent can't be bothered to even have an idea what their kids are watching, then... the kids have bigger problems than inappropriate TV and movies.)

Personally I wish they would do away with the TV and movie ratings that are based on age (PG-13, R, etc.). I'd rather they use some kinds of standardized scales of violence, sex, and profanity (say 1-3 or 1-5) and just give us that. (After all, some parents may be more concerned about their kids seeing violent films, which are easy to do in PG-13, than sexually explicit or suggestive films, which are almost always R.)

Well, Richard, you must be a horrific pessimist. Or maybe its just the American mentality towards war. Either way, we fight wars for a reason. Whether or not you agree with that reason doesn't matter. The soldiers are there because they choose to, and they risk their life every day. It is tragic when there is a loss of life, but the men should be hailed as heroes for their courage and strength, and all you see in this is senseless violence. I changed my mind, you're not a pessimist, you're heartless.Like many people said, if you don't like it, just turn it off.

I, too would like a better ratings system for TV. The movie system is fine, giving plenty of detailed descriptions of what is inside. In TV, we have four letters to discribe what is contained in a program:D(dialogue),V(violence),L(language),S(sexuality). Their are no adjectives to describe what type of language, violence, dialogue, of sexual content is in the show. That does upset me.

Oh I have to laugh at you Brian.

"we fight wars for a reason. Whether or not you agree with that reason doesn't matter."

Yup, it actually does, it may well be me fighting, so I do care. Plus the war is usually in my name or the name of my Country\Goverment, so there is a close connection there. The soldier could be me, me friends, my family, so yet I do have a right to be involved in that decision and it does matter.

"The soldiers are there because they choose to"...Oh yes. All the soldiers want to be in the war? That's definitely inaccurate. There are soldiers who don't want to be in whatever war they are in, I've seen some say just that on documentary interviews of them in war zones.

Just because I take this view I'm heartless? I'd like to know why you think that. Are you suggesting if I say seeing corpses on the news of dead soldiers is not a good thing that I'm heartless? Dear me. You have no idea who I am or what I stand for.

"just turn it off." Unfortunately I can't do that for wars and for real people getting killed.

You know, Richard, why don't you tell me what you believe so I wont make assumptions like that.

You have grossly misinterpretated EVERY FRICKEN THING I HAVE SAID!!!!! I did NOT say EVERY soldier wants to be in wars. But there are people and countries who hate us and want us dead,so we have people who put their lives on the line to protect us. You have to respect the soldiers for that.

Yeah, you're view on wars matters ...to you personally. What i meant is that you're opinions don't matter in the vast picture of things. People aren't going to stop fighting just because you don't like it.

No, you aren't heartless just because you have a certain view. i just don't understand how all you see in war is senseless violence and futile fights. Not everything can be solved peacefully. If it could, then i wouldn't support any kind of war. But the world is full of corruption, and we have to fight against it.

Now i do NOT like it when people die. I don't sit in my easy chair and laugh at drive-by's or giggle at murders. But, like i said before, not everything can be solved peacefully.

Sorry for insulting you, Richard. I got a little upset.

I also don't understand how it's not okay to ban and restrict TV shows and movies, but it is okay to ban prayer and take out God in schools.

Now you think, "oh, that is totally different. You just want to bring God into everything." It actually is quite the same. No one is imposing any belief on anyone by praying at school, just like no one is imposing anything on anyone if people just warn parents instead of banning shows. You can make decisions on you're own about movies, so why can't you make you're own decision about God?

You can laugh at me if you want, Richard. I've gotten worse.

Misinterpret? I even quoted you line by line, and it wasn't out of context at all.

However, that argument was much better formulated and less extreme on one point of view, so I'm much happier with that one!

My opinions do matter on the bigger scale of things. Here's an interesting and much smaller example, and nothing to do with wars! Edinburgh is a big City, and recent changes to driving in the city has caused a lot of anger within the community. The Council proposed a toll charge for driving within the city, graded to being very expensive in the centre, and they went to a Public Consultation on the matter.

I replied. How many others do you think did? Well I received my response a day after the closing date, so it was in pretty late. What number do you think I was attributed in this vast city? 29.

29 people responded to our council on a matter that would affect every driving resident. I was one. On that basis the council have created the ground rules for congestion charging in Scotland. I was one of 29 people (or maybe slightly more) who influenced the local Government.

There are two pages of public consultations running at any one time. People can have their say, and it is a worthwhile say. You have to do something positive though.

I respond to consultations and I'm on two Citizens Panels which respond to questions from the Government, Council and local services. Recently we answered questions on how the Police should be operating and how we feel their services are benefiting us. That's a say.

In the last month I've written to my MP and my MEP, both have replied positively. That's having a say.

On the subject of prayer in schools, it's not banned over here. However I do believe we should be tolerant and teach all faiths if we're going to teach one. As we do in our Religious Education.

All right, Richard. Well said.