Public-access TV porn under fire (Seattle P-I)

[icymist]

Tuesday, February 1, 2005

Public-access TV porn under fire
Seattle network set to consider whether to end 'Mike Hunt TV'

By KERY MURAKAMI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Flip the channels after midnight, past Nick at Nite and the infomercials. If you stumble upon the Seattle area's public-access channel, you might see a man and a woman having sex in a hot tub, followed by another man and woman doing it in a kitchen.

Little is left to the imagination.

In fact, nothing is.

Now questions are being raised again over whether the graphic clips taken from porn movies should be allowed to appear on public-access television. The Seattle Community Access Network, which runs the public-access station for King and south Snohomish counties, has warned Mike Aivaz that his show "Mike Hunt TV" will be yanked off the air if he does not stop airing "the presentation of actual sex acts."

Aivaz says that's censorship, particularly on a channel meant to give access to the airwaves for programming outside the mainstream.

More:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/210158_porn01.html

[sw04ca]

1. What a shmuck...

He can call it censorship if he likes, but he's using community airwaves, so he has to abide by community standards. The First Ammendment does not apply to the public presentation of pornography, and never has, although he's welcome to try and run it to the Supremes, just to underline that point.

I don't think it's unreasonable for a community to have some standards in broadcasting, provided that they don't discriminate against certain protected groups.

[Heddi]

2. My hubby and I caught Mike Hunt TV one night....it was around 10pm

and he was just showing an entire porn movie (or as much of a porn movie that could fit into his 60-min time slot.

We were like 'WHAT DE FUKKKK?????'...it was crazy!

Of course there's also Goddess Kring (shannon kringen) who is a bit...er....kooky and is always showing pictures of herself naked (art...not porn).

I really miss Seattle Public Access. All we have in Yakima is a channel that shows when fall leaf pickup begins, and where to call for school lunch menu of the week :-/

[LeftHander]

5. missed the last 20 minutes then eh...

wink wink nudge nudge you the hubby eh... say no more....say no more...

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

3. Here it's Robin Byrd...

I actually find her to be a very shrewd businesswoman... I used to watch her stuff when I lived in the City (aka Manhattan). Again, I believe in the power of the remote control: if the stuff that's on offends you, change the channel!

After all, it's shown when kids are/should be asleep and you are warned about the mature subject matter.

[musette_sf]

14. I miss Channel J

I caught it a few times on visits home... funniest damn thing I ever saw.

[satya]

4. I find the absence of real news coverage on TV to be more obscene. n/t

[Igel]

6. One evening my wife and I were watching tv, our

5 month old boy playing merrily near the tv (but oddly not paying attention to it).

Apparently the cable company/HBO decided to have HBO be free for the weekend. I was flipping through the stations and ran across some show that showed a bunch of men screwing various women in assorted positions on a mat. My wife, no prude, has become very sensitive concerning anything she thinks might be harmful to our kid (whether now or 20 years from now). She freaked out.

This wasn't 2 am. This was like at 9 pm.

If you want porn, go for pay channels or have the cable companies have a separate free package you can sign up for. It's hard enough raising kids.

[lukasahero]

7. Found an interesting perspective on Common Dreams this morning

on the subject.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0131-32.htm

"Unfortunately for the culture, both sides in this debate are off target.

The conservative forces typically want to control sexuality and are willing to use antiquated and potentially repressive obscenity statues to do it. The pornographers want to derail any criticism of the often blatant misogyny of their product and are willing to wrap themselves in political principles to do that.

But after spending three days at the pornography convention to film interviews for a documentary, it's clearer than ever to me that we have to go beyond that tired framework.

<snip>

We should be afraid of government forces interested in repressing sexual expression. But we also should be afraid of the influence of misogynist pornography. These two fears are not mutually exclusive and can co-exist. Our fear of the former shouldn't stop us from critiquing the latter."

[NashVegas]

13. More Than That

We should be afraid of the influence of corporately-produced / owned/ distributed pornography.

Publicly held corps killed the music and the radio industries with its choke-hold on what the public got to hear, and how it was heard. These are the last people you want in charge of mass distribution of depictions of human sexual expression - no matter how crude or "tasteful."

[warrens]

17. Define misogynist

I may not have met the average woman, but while porn does not turn them on, porn activities do. We are a timid bunch of wimps. Women like things other than a five minute missionary position, but a lot of them are afraid to admit it. Anyway, my girlfriends are different than that. We like something better and more interesting. And women have to take control of their sex and demand what they want. If they are some lame pussy who wants to have sex once a month, admit it. I prefer other kinds of women.

Of course, violent gangbangs and so on are off the chart, as a rule, but the idea that porn degrades women is stupid. There is a sqaudron of prudes, both left and right, who want to dictate morality to all of us. Fuck them.

And please spare me the "it makes men go out and rape" crap.

[drummer55]

8. better that than another glorification of war, violence and death n/t

[mumon]

9. it's cable, dude...

not the same rules as broadcast...

[mudderfudder77]

10. Correct me if I'm wrong,

But cable can essentially air whatever it likes including porn, but are limited by what their sponsors and subscribers allow? Broadcast on the other hand is governed by FCC decency standards.

[Heddi]

12. It's NOT cable

it's channel 77 on cable, channel 29 for antenna receptors.

No cable needed, therefore, they are the same rules as broadcast

:)

[baba]

11. I'm surprised it has lasted this long.

I've seen it-it is pretty graphic. It doesn't bother me, though. It is on pretty late at night.

[rooboy]

15. That's disgusting. How do I get to Seattle? n/t

[Gabi Hayes]

16. pretty hard to find.....took as long as it did to type:

cheap flights to Seattle

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Flights-g60878-Seattle_Washington-Cheap_Discount_Airfares.html

[high density]

18. My local public access channel showed that fine anti-Kerry documentary...

I'm not sure I'd want my kid bumping into that program, either.

[leesa]

20. Teach them about sex and then you don't have to worry about it. Stop

being so damned prudish.

[leesa]

19. Oh, my God...SEX...terror of terrors!! Americans are so backwards

[ckramer]

21. It's sure better than the 100,000 dead Iraqis