For the last few weeks, Psychotic Reactions has been posted at a fairly erratic and some might say infrequent rate. Part of that is simply a matter of time. I've put a lot of effort into revamping the design of this website and that killed a lot of potential articles. Another reason is that the entertainment industry just hasn't been pissing me off enough lately. It's hard to write an article that lives up to the title when you're surrounded by vanilla.
Let's take the Oscars for example. Most entertainment journalists have now composed long winded articles describing the event in loving detail. Me? I just came out of the coma the cermenony induced. This year's Oscars was the dullest event to appear on primetime television since the last episode of Enterprise aired. Okay that's not really fair to the Oscars but you get my point. There were no surprises to be found anywhere. Return of the King won everything in sight. The best song performances were mostly torturous to sit through. Billy Crystal turned in the exact same performance he has every other time, now much staler for the repetition.
This doesn't piss me off, it just dulls my senses. If you insist on details, check out the transcript of the live chat I hosted. I'm not spending another second on that snooze fest.
The truth is, most of my anger is being vented in the political arena. I won't get into that here because this is an entertainment website. If you really want to here it, send me an email. Judging by the way my mailbox is now not filling up with requests, that idea can be safely thrown out.
So where does that leave me? I think I'll have to defend Howard Stern. I don't even like Stern's act but that doesn't make Clear Channel's decision to pull his show immediately before testifying before the FCC about decency on the airwaves the right thing to do. The move was transparent and pitiful. But this is exactly why I have repeatedly warned against letting media outlets consolidate any further. Clear Channel owns a ton of radio stations and thus has a massive say in what you can or cannot hear. Do you really want corporations making decisions for you about what is or isn't decent to watch or hear? I sure as hell don't.
Our government has been on a witch hunt for those who would sully the airwaves with less than decent material ever since Janet Jackson's strangely attired nipple made an appearance at the Super Bowl. Why has a flash of nudity sparked such outrage? It's a boob for crying out loud. It's a part of life. Grow up all ready. My personal reaction to this non-event was to completely forget about it until catching the news and seeing it replayed with accompanying outrage from some talking head or another.
This country is very immature when it comes to sex. On one side we have Michael Powell and his FCC cronies screaming bloody murder over one flashed boob. On the other we have Howard Stern talking to strippers and porn stars on the radio. The fact that either end of this spectrum results in large audiences says that our country has no idea what to think about sex but it sure as hell grabs our attention. Try talking about government and those same viewers start snoring and rolling their eyes.
Let's acknowledge it right now. Sex sells, whether condemning it or promoting it. The bulk of the population is quite entranced by the topic. If it's okay for the government to grab attention by denouncing sex on the air, it's equally okay for Stern to grab attention with porn stars on the air. Clear Channel knew exactly what they had with Stern. Dumping him was an act of hypocritical cowardice. On the flip side, the FCC can stop pretending it wants to protect people from indecent material on the air. It already proved it didn't care about the people when it okayed the rules that let a behemoth like Clear Channel develop in the first place.
I'm glad I got that off my chest. Now I can go back to my new hobby, watching Barry Bonds deny using steroids while apparently everyone he has ever known is indicted for selling them.
- John Shea
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