On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Jay Gooby wrote:
> ...
> >http://adbusters.org/magazine/34/jail.html
> >
> >WATCH OR GO TO JAIL
Very interesting. Although it turns out the Maurer kids are against all
television, not just the commercials. They're trying to avoid all TV
stimulation.
The Maurer family, and others who put their comments on
http://www.tvorjail.com, seem to view TV watching as addictive and the
medium itself as dangerous or evil. I think of what 9-year-old DeborahM
wrote:
"--What I think About TV--
I think the TV is wicked, it is filthy, if you
listen to the news most of the time you might push the wrong button. Then
you see something very ungodlly. Then you look at it for a little while.
Then your bound to it with both hands and feet."
It sounds like Deborah stumbled upon Madonna doing a music video. Or
perhaps Madonna demonstrating Pilates.
Anyway, it seems from what I've read that the Maurer kids would not even
be willing to watch a videotape of a documentary, if that's the beginning
of a slippery slope into more TV watching. While I salute them for
standing up for their religious convictions, they're not against the
commercials so much as against the show content and the hypnotism of the
medium.
And speaking of Channel One, I think it's a sad, sad indicator of how
little support schools get from property owners. Schools ought to be able
to afford a few VCRs and monitors on their own. The daily Channel One
news show for kids, however, can be replaced by taping free kid-friendly
alternatives, such as CNN Newsroom[1].
-Matt Jensen
NewsBlip.com
Seattle
[1] http://learning.turner.com/newsroom/index.html
On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Jay Gooby wrote:
> ...
> >http://adbusters.org/magazine/34/jail.html
> >
> >WATCH OR GO TO JAIL
> >
> >Students locked up after refusing to watch Channel One
> >
> >
> >When Ohio teenagers DJ and Carlotta Maurer walked out of their classrooms
> >in October to protest the compulsory viewing of Channel One, a television
> >program with commercials which is shown in schools across America, school
> >officials realized they had a couple of dangerous radicals on their hands.
> >
> >Principal Patrick Calvin invoked the truancy provision of the school's
> >code of student conduct, and 13-year-old DJ and 14-year-old Carlotta were
> >whisked away to the Wood County Juvenile Detention Center, where they had
> >all day to consider their crime.
> >
> >Since then, Commercial Alert and Obligation, Inc., two national anti-media
> >groups, have taken up the Maurers' cause. The groups wrote to Ohio
> >Governor Bob Taft, urging him to remove Channel One from all public
> >schools.
> >
> >"When the government sends children to a juvenile detention center because
> >they don't want to watch advertising, that is both Orwellian and more than
>
> >a little sick," reads the letter. "The public schools ought to be a
> >sanctuary from the noxious aspects of commercial culture."
> >
> >The governor has not responded to the letter. But the school is in
> >negotiation with the Maurers, who have religious objections to television.
> >It seems a day in the lockup didn't cool their heels enough to keep them
> >from kicking.
> >
> > Eliza Strickland
> >
> >http://adbusters.org/magazine/34/jail.html
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:13:13 PDT