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VIOLENCE IN TELEVISION

MURDER

VIOLENCE IN TELEVISION

As an advocate for family entertainment, I am amazed at all the violence in television.  It makes me sick to my stomach when network executives green light projects illustrating the lowest form of humanity; murder.

Of course, the cop show has been around forever, but the networks aren’t hiding their appetites for destruction with their recent unveiling of two shows in particular:

HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER

STALKER

I understand the media ideal of ‘IF IT BLEEDS, IT LEADS,’ but does that mean we have to fill the stage with murder and call it entertainment? How can anyone in their right mind tune into a show called HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER and then recognize their natural impulse for love and compassion?  Why would anyone want to spend an hour of their time with a stalker?  I’m not saying we all need to sit around and watch Bambi (which ironically starts out with Mom getting killed), I’m just saying things are getting WAY out of hand.

Have we fallen into such an abyss of carelessness that we view these offerings of murder as entertainment?  The question I have is why would we want to arm someone with enough tools so they can get away with murder in the first place?  Why would we showcase the ugliness of stalking another human being and then package it up and call it entertainment? What I don’t understand is the viewing public gets sideways and will boycott a program if nudity makes an appearance, but we have no problem with the gratuitous violence of murder?  It’s everywhere now.

Dateline and 20/20 used to be investigative reporting, but now they are simply murder reenactment scenarios. Countless television dramas will put guns into the hands of children and we’re okay with it because it’s ‘just a TV show’, but if the nipple were to make an appearance, we’ll flood the FCC with calls of obscenity?  Wardrobe ‘malfunctions’ are orchestrated because it creates controversy, but shouldn’t the controversy be reserved for the packaging of murder and labeling it entertainment?  To me, that’s obscene. I for one would rather have people run around naked because of some television show than arming the misdirected with a show called HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER or teach the inner workings of being a Stalker.  We can do better, can’t we?