Voter's Values Don't Reflect TV Picks (NYT)

[maxrandb]

Surprise, surprise!

Sorry, can't seem to link to the story at this time, but maybe I'm just technology challenged.


THE NEW YORK TIMES
"The results of the presidential election of 2004 are still being parsed for what they say about the electorate’s supposed closer embrace of traditional cultural values. But for the network television executives charged with finding programs that speak to tastes across the nation, one lesson is clear. The supposed cultural divide is more like a cultural mind meld. Representatives of the four big broadcast networks as well as Hollywood production studios said the returns on display in the nightly television ratings bore little relation to the message apparently sent by a significant percentage of voters.

So if it is true that the public’s electoral choices are a cry for more morally driven programming, the network executives ask, why are so many people, even in the markets surrounding the Bush bastions Atlanta and Salt Lake City watching a sex-drenched television drama?
"Desperate Housewives" on ABC is the big new hit of the television season, ranked second overall in the country, behind only "CSI" on CBS. This satire of suburbia and modern relationships features, among other morally challenged characters, a married woman in her 30s having an affair with a high school-age gardener, and has prompted several advertisers, including Lowe’s, to pull their advertisements.
In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than 2 million households, "Desperate Housewives" is the top-rated show. Nearly 58 percent of the voters in those counties voted for President Bush."

I think this proves my theory that those preaching morals are feeding us all a line of "hewey". The porn industry is a BILLION dollar a year business. I'm sure it is only wicked liberal blue staters that are keeping porn producers in "Hummers".

Anyway, if anyone wants to read the whole story, I found it in the VA Pilot at www.pilotonline.com. Enjoy.

[johnfunk]

1. No-subscription-needed link to story

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041122/NEWS/411220339/1002/NEWS01

Hey -- even moralists need their T&A too...

[maxrandb]

2. Thanks

Man! Doesn't this just smack of that guy in the flowing robes at the pulpit, telling me about values and God and sin...and then, molesting a 12 year old Altar Boy when no one is looking?

I came up with a new slogan: "If Republicans Outlaw Porn,
Only Outlaw Republicans will have PORN!"

[The White Tree]

13. It reminds me of smoking parents lecturing their children

about the dangers of smoking.

Do as I say, not as I do.

To me this is an appropriate metaphor because so much of what they do affects everyone.

Hows this for a slogan -

The Republican Party, As bad for you as secondhand smoke.

[maxrandb]

22. I like this one even more, 'cause it turns it around on them

the Republican Party - The Nanny Party, or
the Republican Party - The Mommy Party

[calimary]

30. How about The Buttinski Party? Or The Busy-Body Party?

Or maybe The Prissy Party?

[leesa]

3. And strangely enough, most liberals won't ever have seen these shows.

Perhaps because we have lives?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Ironic, isn't it?

Repressed people sneaking a peek at the free-wheeling sex lives of others. And you can bet that they talk about the episodes at work the next day.

[SiouxJ]

5. This is the first thing I pointed out when my Repuke friends

started going off about moral values winning the election. I said, if this country was as concerned about that as the Rightwing media would have you believe, "Sex and the City," Howard Stern and the porn industry would have been done years ago. Instead, they are huge money makers. They are feeding us such utter bullshit with this moral values crap. People have no idea how big the porn industry is as it isn't talked about by the media. Every time a new TV show or rap artist or game comes out that is more sexually explicit or violent than the last, they are wildly successful. I'm guessing only about 20% (at MOST) of Americans really think about their moral values on a daily basis. Most people think more about how they can get their kicks.

[htuttle]

6. That's how it works

Wilhelm Reich's, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism"
as scripted by the Surveillance Camera Players
http://www.notbored.org/reich.html

[maxrandb]

8. You Know, I never Connected the Two

but wasn't that one of the things that led to Hitler and the NAZI's coming to power? The whole moral values, master race type thing? Now, before people brand me a nut case or tinfoil hatter, I'm not suggesting that your average Republican is a NAZI. I mean, some of my best friends vote repuke.

That being said, isn't it extremely dangerous that Democrats in general, and liberals in particular, are branded as "evil, or immoral"? I mean, isn't the first step to genocide when you dehumanize the opposition? Doesn't it make it much easier for us to kill Muslims indiscriminately if we stereotype them as Godless barbarians?

I think I know the answers to those questions, and it scares the piss right out of me.

[htuttle]

10. Yes, they did, and it does

In addition, sexual repression and guilt are very powerful energies that fascists can harness to get the masses to do their bidding.

People who feel guilty (especially sexually guilty) are remarkably easy to control.

[drdtroit]

29. They promoted "Family Values" &

"HOMELAND SECURITY"!

[Straight Shooter]

7. The reason for this is that sex really isn't sacred to them

They're obsessed with it because they truly don't understand the nature of sex as comfort, as pleasure, as a bonding ritual between two consenting adults.

They see sex as something dirty, and thus they are obsessed with it, and shamed by it, and why they are so easily influenced by sexual innuendo in advertising. They have a locker room mentality towards sex and the dynamics of personal, physical relationships.

I just want to slap them and say "Grow up already!"

[maxrandb]

9. Or Make them read "The DaVinci Code". n/t

[jwirr]

12. Very well said.

[TahitiNut]

14. "They see sex as something dirty"

That's NOT unusual. Indeed, due to the fact that so many people learn about sex in a covert, secretive, and illicit manner, the psychological association of the learning process itself carries through adulthood. It's rather common knowledge that the emotional context of any "learning process" becomes closely associated with the subject. Aversion therapy depends on it.

Age has offered me some perspective. I "learned" about sex during the repressive 50's. (Snicker. Snicker.) It took me years to work toward a more emotionally healthy attitude. The emotional association of arousal with "forbidden fruit" has probably led to more sexually frustrated marriages than anything else. (After all, it's not 'forbidden' when you're married, right? Limp noodle time.)

The most sexually well-adjusted people (usually female, of course) I've met are those about 12 years my junior - whose 'learning experiences' took place in the late 60's and early 70's, and whose parents were both comfortable with their children's maturation and respectful of it.

[jwirr]

11. Are security moms the same as

desparate housewives?

[maxrandb]

15. ROTFLMAO n/t

[Nicholas_J]

16. Got to remember

That the values of the "values voters" were never defined as values regarding their opwn behavior. Every time they discussed values, they discussed abortion and homosexuality, and their desire to control the rights ot OTHER people in this regard.

One fact that has been highly ignored. That some of the highest rates of abortion occur in Red States, and aone of the largest percentages of those getting abortions are the children of self professed right to lifers. On the other hand, Abortion tends to be lower in the blue states.

Another fact. In the year that Bush took office, abortion rates had reached their lowest since theRoe V. Wade decision, and have climbed every year since Bush came to office, belying the right wing claim that abortions are abortions of convenience, nad giving support to the fact that the social and economic environment are the largest factor in people deciding to have abortions. The largest number of abortions in the last 4 years have been among the people who have fallen into poverty during the last 4 years.

[maxrandb]

25. So, What Your Telling Me Is...

That under "moral" President Reagan abortion went up. Under "immoral" President Clinton, legal abortion was reduced to it's lowest level since the passage of Roe V Wade.

Then you are also telling me that since 2001 (under "moral" *), the rate of legal abortion is on the rise.

Could it be that Democrats are the real party of life? Could it be that, even though Democrats may never support and outright ban on abortion, that sound economic policy, strong support systems, education, sex education, and even access to contraception actually REDUCES THE NUMBER OF ABORTIONS?????

(sarcasm off)

Tell me it isn't so. "Hello Liberal Media". Paging the "Liberal Media". There's a story here. the story if you choose to report it is that "DEMOCRATS ARE THE TRUE PARTY OF LIFE".

Never mind. Go back to Scott Peterson, ooops, sorry, I mean gear up for Robert Blake.

"Hey Media.......YOU SUCK!!!!"

[Carni]

17. This is just more common sense evidence that the election was rigged

Just my opinion.

[VegasWolf]

18. LOL. That was EXACTLY my thought!! n/t

[Junkdrawer]

24. Well, you see, the invisible Fundies don't watch TV...

Yeah, that's the ticket.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

28. Well.... they might be busy homeschooling

maybe. (I doubt it)

[ChrisK]

19. What also has to be remembered is

that well over 100 million Americans did not vote and they could just as well be the people that are supporting the things that the right seem to hate like these television shows and such.

Whats funny is that those 100 million plus that didn't vote don't seem to care about either side...there not listening to the right OR the left and just doing what they want...whats even funnier is the right thinks its us on the left that are all in support for crap TV when we dislike some of the garbage out there just as much, but for very different reasons i.e: the dumbing down of people(left) versus the sex (right).

I personally thing that most folks on the right are hypocrites when it comes to there values and what they think how the rest of normal, mature self-responsible Americas should be living like...too bad there the ones that seem to be lost as to what most American really want..and its not Jesus or the bible I can tell you that :)

[okieinpain]

23. hmmm! like rush, and oreilly, both having their ratings go up after

being exposed for their morals.

[ooglymoogly]

20. could it have something to do with those peski exit pols

[info being]

21. It isn't about values. It's about OBEYING AUTHORITY

They always listen to socially-acceptable figures of authority. That's how they get tricked every time.

So the only consistent "value" is obedience to authority.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. That's an interesting observation.

It does seem as if they're only interested in parroting whatever the weekly pulpit message might be, rather than considering what their morals actually are.

[Kurovski]

27. ?

"In the greater Atlanta market, reaching more than 2 million households, "Desperate Housewives" is the top-rated show. Nearly 58 percent of the voters in those counties voted for President Bush."


Maybe 58% didn't really vote for Bush after all? Is Atlanta immune to vote fraud?

[William Seger]

31. The title is incorrect.

The self-righteous right's "values" DO reflect perfectly in their TV picks. To the self-righteous right, "morality" only has one meaning: their own obsession with other people having sex. (They probably convince themselves that they are only doing "opposition research" so that when the show is over, they can fantasize about what their own neighbors are doing right now.)

[SoCalDem]

32. All the more reason to disbelieve the "moral values" crappola

PEOPLE LIE.. especially when they feel that they are "nasty, dirty, vile" people, and they want to portray themselves as someone "pious, sweet, and chaste" :)

[enki23]

33. well, that's easy enough

the values they display in practice don't match those they profess. nothing new to see here.

maybe all these bush voters want the government to save them from themselves?

[CBHagman]

34. Thoughts about the GOP/right wing.

First, with some notable exceptions, the GOP and the religious right in this country have loudly complained about public broadcasting and government funding of the arts, claiming it's "pornography." I won't get started on the history of that claim, but it's certainly interesting that they go after funding for Shakespeare festivals and historical museums before, say, corporate welfare.

Secondly, the right wing is fond of telling us how the market will solve our problems. Then the market shows that sleaze sells, and the silence is deafening.

They want to have it both ways.