Les Jones: Seal of Good Practice for TV

April 06, 2004

A&E > Seal of Good Practice for TV

Jeff Jarvis blogs the Seal of Good Practice for TV, which was in effect until Reagan killed it. Wow. I had no idea the restrictions TV shows were working under.

On the one hand, there are prime shows that go too far. (With masturbation and oral sex used in jokes on TV, what is it going to take to shock people 20 years from now?) But these restrictions are too much of an impingement on freedom of political speech, and Jarvis fisks them appropriately.

Attacks on religion and religous faiths are not allowed. Reverence is to mark any mention of the name of God, His attributes and powers.... [Clergy] portrayed in their callings are vested with the dignity of their office and under no circumstances are to be held up to ridicule.
Respect is to be maintained for the sanctity of marriage and the value of the home. Divorce is not treated casually nor justified as a solution for marital problems.

Exhibitions of fortune-telling, astrology, phrenology, palm-reading, and numerology are acceptable only when required by a plot...

The presentation of techniques of crime in such detail as to invite imitation shall be avoided.

Law enforcement shall be upheld, and the officers of the law are to be portrayed with respect and dignity.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

The simple problem is a First Amendment one. TV increasingly reflects society at large and uses the same crude language and profanity. The characters often appear in a similar degree of undress. Whether or not this has a negative effect on a 10-year-old who might be watching and who has a larger vocabulary of profanity than his parents and watches porn on his friends PC which his friends parents never supervise...I don't know....whatever happened to Tipper Gore? ;)

Posted by: Steve at April 07, 2004

This sounds a lot like the movie code from back in the day.

Posted by: Thibodeaux at April 07, 2004