Television has lost purpose and common decency
By Marcos Moreno
Fall means the beginning of a new school year. It also means the start of a new season for all our favorite television shows. But have you seen what the networks are airing these days?
To put it nicely, it's garbage. Every time I flip on the television, I get more and more disappointed. These shows are ridiculous -- wife swapping, what the heck is that? Each year the premises for shows get more outrageous.
I am in no way interested in seeing how many pig rectums a super model can eat. Nor do I want to watch rich kids with problems. It's like the networks just stopped trying.
Have they no shame? Weren't most television networks founded on some principle of quality and excellence in programming? They need to get it together and have some common decency.
Something changed and every civilized person at this school should be offended. We're not mindless twits who sit in front of the idiot box, drooling. At least I hope not.
Give us some credit.
We may be the "Jackass" generation, but that doesn't mean we don't want a show with substance every now and then. You can only see someone get hit in the groin so many times before it loses its appeal.
I wish we could go back to the golden age of television: the 90s. A time when MTV showed music videos and Saturday Night Live was still funny.
Now MTV shows everything but music videos -- and who even watches Saturday Night Live anymore?
It wasn't until fall of 1997 that things began to change. Before that time television shows weren't required to have a standardized rating system and then the Federal Communications Commission said they should. It was the year that a show called "South Park" debuted on Comedy Central.
When "South Park" aired, it was such a welcome change from ordinary programming; in fact, it put Comedy Central on the map. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone came up with a raunchy cartoon show that no parent in their right mind would let their kids watch. Though it was vulgar, it approached life with witty satire and humor that no series had ever done before.
I hate to scapegoat such a revolutionary show, but after its premiere, "South Park" ushered in a tumultuous wave of awful programming. While "South Park" used vulgarity as a satirical device these "new wave" shows just used them for cheap laughs.
The worst offenders are reality television shows, which have little to do with reality and don't make for good television. A study conducted last year by the Parents Television Council found that the two worst televised reality programs were "Big Brother 4" and "The Surreal Life." According to the PTC, those two shows had the most violence, sex and profanity.
The problem most unscripted shows run in to is trying to outdo their competitors. For them it's a constant struggle to win viewers, so they are continually adding more extreme stunts for shock value. Other networks get wind of it and then go retool their shows. So it becomes a never-ending cycle of excess and immoral behavior.
So, what I would urge the students, and anyone who is fed up with this broadcast rubbish, to do is just stop. If we can't see it, it isn't there and if we don't watch it they will stop airing it. Take it from me; if it isn't entertaining, then it isn't worth watching.
* Ã Ã Marcos Moreno is a junior.