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opinion:
our view
Television brings
closure
In the wake of the
terrorists' attacks on Sept. 11, many films, television shows
and concerts were postponed or canceled altogether.
One of those shows
postponed was the Emmy Awards, which celebrates the best in
television. So the show was rescheduled for last Sunday night,
where again it was canceled, due to bombs being dropped on
Afghanistan by the United States and its allies that very
morning.
Television, whether you like it or not, has always been an
escape for Americans from the real world, a chance to be entertained
by a sitcom or to engross themselves in a whodunit.
But, the decision by CBS, and Hollywood in general, has deprived
those who cared their chance to be entertained. This choice
has selfishly left Americans with no release from the outside
world, just another reminder that this country is in quite
a mess that will, no doubt, take years to be resolved.
So their decision makes you wonder if this type of thing will
happen for the next few years while America is entrenched
in some type of war. If this is the case, this country will
just be stuck without any sort of entertainment that will
be intended to take your mind away from the problems at hand.
An even more important question to this whole thing is, who
do these people in Hollywood think they are?
Let's be completely honest. Television and movie stars should
not have to be the police for us all, deciding what we can
and cannot watch or what we should and should not talk about.
Think back a few years, while the Gulf War was going on, we
certainly didn't have this same sensitivity towards war, so
why is Hollywood so sensitive towards it now?
The simple fact of the matter is that most of us are grown
up enough to decide what we want to watch and we don't want
to watch. It's not up to anyone else to decide for us.
Americans should be open-minded enough to take a few jokes
or a few social commentaries on what's going on. Laughter
could be the best medicine, so give us something to laugh
about, something without the kid gloves.
Hollywood is in a strange predicament where they may very
well lose their edge if they continue to be so gentle with
its audience.
The truth of it all is that the studios are more worried about
their reputations than anything. They know that in this time
of unprecedented patriotism the wrong decision could cost
them viewers for years to come.
But again it begs the question, who do these people think
they are?
Television and film shouldn't have such an impact on Americans
lives that the studios should have to not allow viewers to
see what they want to see.
In that case, the studios that have been scapegoated for years
by politicians as being irresponsible are buying into that
very political mumbo jumbo.
Hollywood has always been there to just entertain. Wars and
mixed feelings should not signal the end for their true responsibilities,
which is to take us away from it all.
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