>Opinions | Violent Censorship

Originally Posted by Jeff Harris

About half a century ago, people began embracing this medium we call television. And kids just loved it. Space adventures and westerns on almost all day long, television was a welcome break from reality. Advertisers ate it up, and ratings were high. Sure, only a small percentage of households in the US had televisions in this so-called "golden era," but the shows were being churned out on a yearly basis, with names like Buck Rogers, Captain Video, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, Space Patrol, Tom Corbett-Space Cadet, and The Rifleman. Yeah, they were nothing more than realistic yet bloodless, ultraviolent images and commercials for merchandising (heck, one series was sponsored by a BB rifle for cripe's sake), but hey, nobody complained.

Cue to 2001. People are still embracing this medium we call television, evolving past the black and white days of those 800-pound sets and moving to streamlined, color, multichanneled coaxial cable lineups. We're even living in an age that has all-animation stations. In Japan, they have AniMax. In Canada, Teletoon. In most of Latin America, Locomotion. But in the US and throughout most of the world, we have Cartoon Network, the grandaddy of them all, the innovator and the originator of the 24-7-365 animation lineup. And kids just love it!. Thanks to Toonami, we have space adventures and westerns (albeit space westerns) on a good fraction of the day. Television is a welcome break from reality. Sure, only a small percentage of households in the US has Cartoon Network, but for almost four years, Toonami has been churning out the hits in this new so-called "golden-era" of animation, with names like Dragon Ball Z, ReBoot, Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo!, Sailor Moon, Justice League, Outlaw Star, and many, many others. Yeah, they're nothing more than unrealistic yet violent images, it's surprising that little merchandising is made from them. They're not really complaining about Toonami (save that insipid article from that totling town trying to start some trouble over nothing), but a lot of other shows, mainly live-action shows chock full of violence, are being criticized. There's even a bill on the congress floor to end violence on television in general.

Now, my question is this . . . What's their problem?!?

Seriously. I mean, why does my generation and the next generation have to suffer from this needless barrage of censorship cries? When I was younger, it was the pointless editing of Looney Tunes and MGM shorts, removing just about every violent and stereotypical scenes present. Nowadays, they want to just about ruin the action-animation industry by cutting out material deemed inappropriate to little kids (Return of the Joker is the most infamous of this new era). I mean, these same people that grew up watching guys carry guns, shooting "Indians," and blasting space criminals in the 50s are now in charge of what we can't look at on television on our own time. I would have said what we can AND can't watch, but they know what they television to be like. Clean. Pure. Free from everything different. Clear. Monotonious. Boring. Dull. And most of all, educational. Everything's supposed to teach a lesson to the kids. It's funny really. They want to instill education in children's programming, yet they want to cut funding to one of the premiere sources of education in children's programming, PBS (and the Discovery Channels aren't doing a shabby job either).

I still find it humorous that some people find cartoons as the source of the ultimate evil. I mean, cartoons this day and age are so unrealistic, it's not even funny. Actually it is. People think that kids can emulate the actions on cartoons. If they can, I would really like to see them do that. If you can find a kid who can pick up and throw an anvil on somebody's head, a kid who can shoot off fiery blasts from his fists, or a kid who could pilot a gigantic mecha unit, I'd like photographs. Make doubles for yourself and send one to the record books, because it's a rarity.

But it's not going to happen. People will still treat animation as a third-class art form. People will still treat it as if should be just for kids. One of these days, people will treat it with respect and honor it with numerous accolades. Just wish it happened today than in the future.