Since Janet Jackson decided to reveal her decorated bosom on national television, the media have undergone drastic changes in censorship. Some special keynote speakers addressed these issues in last night's panel discussion.
As part of Communication Week, the College of Communications sponsored a panel entitled, Pop Culture: Pushing the Envelope, in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. The keynote speakers were David Collins, creator of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; Margo Myers, unit production manager for Sex and the City; The Daily Show actor Brian Unger, and Randall Winston, producer-director of NBC's Scrubs. All of the speakers are graduates of Ohio University.
The moderator, Paul Schneider, opened the discussion with a question about the current boundaries and changes in media censorship that resulted from the Super Bowl halftime show controversy. Winston made the point that NYPD Blue used to show Dennis Franz's posterior all the time, but Winston said, the times have changed.
Myers' introduction video included a clip from Sex and the City with one of the characters in the nude doing everyday activities. This is possible because the show was aired on HBO, a paid cable channel, Myers said. But, the sitcom is moving to syndication and will be aired on TBS. Myers said she fears Samantha, one of the most explicit and sexual characters, will get completely cut out because of censorship and the show's running time cutting from 34 minutes to 21 minutes to accommodate commercials.
This is what we're up against
said Winston. They can show naked people and swear. How can we compete?
Collins said the boundaries are open, but there will always be a fear. The fear he spoke of was the affect an issue would have on advertisers and their role in clearance of controversial content.
The real danger is self censorship of corporate America to sell more detergent said Unger.
The speakers said they all have to play a game of dodging their respective linebacker-like censors in pushing the envelope to get certain topics on TV. Unger said the worst four words you can hear from a censor is you can't say that.
Collins built off that idea by saying executives generally think viewers don't want to be challenged. He said he has to dumb it down because they're not gonna get it in Ohio quickly objecting this idea because he is from Ohio.
Unger said he learned from working on The Daily Show that one of the biggest taboos in censorship is a political joke. His show has to walk a fine line making sure a joke about Pakistan will not cause nuclear war, in a worse case scenario. With a national crisis like Sept. 11, his show almost went bankrupt from broadcasters and networks wanting people to be sad instead of laughing.
Satire is a flashlight in a dark room; you can't look at it and say it's funny. You have to laugh around it
said Unger.
Unger closed the event urging OU students to continue to be passionate about their ideas and beliefs. To Unger, the open-minded atmosphere of OU is what made the school an influential place in his life.
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Blake Gillespie
