But can I watch the Simpsons?

This just in from http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/13565306.htm

My comments are in red


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KSNW refuses to air 'Daniel'

Because of protests, Channel 3 decides against broadcasting a program about a struggling minister and his family.

BY JOE RODRIGUEZ
The Wichita Eagle

Wichita's KSNW Channel 3 will not air "The Book of Daniel" -- a program scheduled to premiere tonight -- after hearing from hundreds of viewers concerned that the show was offensive to Christians (It premiers TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!).

The station is among only a handful of NBC affiliates that have announced that they will not air the show. That list includes at least two other NBC affiliates -- in Indiana and Arkansas -- according to the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association (Why are they telling people what I can and can not watch? BTW Their website is down www.afa.net so you can not contact them. I did call them and after I pressed all the numbers to take me through their phone maze, I got disconnected at legal.) , which urged people to ask their local stations not to air the program.
Station general manager Shawn Oswald said Thursday that the station received more than 300 (remember this number. It will be brought up later.) e-mails and phone calls from viewers opposed to the show.

"Over the past several days KSN has been contacted by viewers and area religious leaders expressing concerns over the content of this program,(Grown men in authoritative positions of a religious organization having sex with children was not important enough to "express concerns"? Where were these people then/now with the protests?) " the station said in a news release. "As broadcasters using public airwaves and leaders in the community, we don't believe it's in the best interests of our community to air a program that a large number of viewers find deeply offensive." (Wichita Kansas has over 345,000 people in it and 300 complained. You do the math)

In "The Book of Daniel," Aidan Quinn portrays the Rev. Daniel Webster, an Episcopalian minister. According to the show's description on the NBC Web site, Daniel "struggles to be a good husband, father and minister, while trying to control a nagging addiction to prescription painkillers.(Just do not give the pain killers to your young sex toys and you will be OK)", and an often rocky relationship with the church hierarchy The Rev. Terry Fox, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church and one of the religious leaders who contacted the station, was pleased with the decision.
"I think (the show's) content is very offensive to most of the people in the country, and especially to people in Kansas," he said. "And I think it says that the local station truly is listening to the majority of people (300 is a majority in Kansas? I really believed Kansas had more than 599 people in it. I called Rev. Fox at 1:07 mountain time today and spoke with a very pleasant lady. She took all of my information and as of 2:13 I have not heard back yet. Rev Fox is probably very busy today what with thinking for "most of the people in the country". [ to get an exact number for what constitutes "most" out of over 297,000,000 people use the formual - (HUNCH2) ].I always thought it was phenomenal that Rush Limbaugh could read peoples minds on a one on one basis or whole political organizations at a time but this "most of the country" thing is basically a super power.) and I think the people really appreciate it."

The program was scheduled to premiere from 8 to 10 p.m. today. In its place, the station will air a program on St. Jude Hospital from 8 to 9 and "Kansas Profile," a local Dateline-type program, from 9 to 10. Oswald said further programming decisions would be made on a "week-by-week" basis.

It's not common for local stations to refuse to air a show. Oswald said he didn't know the last time KSNW took such action.

In September 1993, KAKE Channel 10 pulled "NYPD Blue" from its lineup for about half of a season. Joan Barrett, general manager of KWCH Channel 12, said she could not recall her station pulling a network program for similar reasons.

A representative from the American Family Association saw a special viewing of the show on Tuesday and described it as an attack on Christianity, said Randy Sharp, its director of special projects.

Among the group's criticisms is that the show portrays Jesus -- who appears and speaks to the minister -- as a "good ol' boy, nonchalant, happy-go-lucky kind of guy," Sharp said.
"It's not a true representation of Jesus Christ," (As opposed to the blue-eyed-blond- haired one of North America or the one that eats guinea pigs in Peru?) he said.

Also offensive, Sharp said, is that the show portrays everyone in the minister's family as dysfunctional: one of his children sells drugs (Side note here. I bought weed from a ministers kid in my home town as a young buck. It was nothing like the weed ministers kids are selling nowadays though. It was some of your basic Mexican four-fingers-make-an-ounce variety. Took three joints the size of your middle finger for four people to catch a righteous buzz, but I digress.), another is sexually promiscuous(Catholic girls start much too late...), another is homosexual, and his wife is an alcoholic(And a partridge in a pair treeeeeeeeee.).
Still, not all people -- even religious leaders -- applauded the decision.
The Rev. Kate Moorehead, rector of St. James Episcopal Church in east Wichita, said she was looking forward to the show. She called the decision not to air it a form of censorship (Go Katie, Go Katie.)."People should understand it as fiction (Unlike the fact filled bible) and as a form of art," she said. "And they should be able to judge for themselves whether they want to watch it or not."

The Rev. William James Wood, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in downtown Wichita, said he wasn't concerned about the show's portrayal of religious leaders and their families.
"I wouldn't get up in arms about that," he said. "This is fiction." (God Man Dude, You got a keeper here.)

But that matters little to people who are critical of the show.
"You don't see NBC making a fictional entertainment program about Muslims or Jews (Seinfeld?) or about any other faith. The target is Christianity," Sharp said.
"We don't see the entertainment value in Christian-bashing. It's demeaning, it's degrading and it's disrespectful. (There are over 3,200 adults that were molested as children that would disagree. Wouldn't only 300 have to complain?)"

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OK. So I blogged. It was good. Was a little tight starting out but I loosened up once I got going. I did not take this too seriously, kept to the basics, did not turn over the ball and capitalized on the other teams mistakes. (Sorry. I have been watching the college football games over the holidays. Yea! That's right -HOLIDAYS. Not Christmas. Not Kwanzaa. Not Hanukkah. H-O-L-I-D-A-Y-S.)

ANYWAY. Do not know if I did it right. Mr. Joe Rodriguez did a great article here. It did everything a news article should. Objective, fact filled and provocative. People often forget that writing is one of those "art" things. If it does not provoke thought, it is craft. I will email this to Mr. Rodriguez out of courtesy.

Gotta get back to work.

later

r