Streaming Platforms Puts Responsibility on Parents
By: Tripp Vistica
April 29, 2020
While watching the first episode of “The Last Dance”, ESPN’s new ten-episode docuseries, I couldn’t help but wonder how broadcasting that much uncensored adult content on cable television would affect ESPN’s well-known brand. The content and language were even worse in the second episode than the first, because the cursing worsened. After the first two episodes, I was certain ESPN’s clean image was going to be tarnished, but I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again.
I’m an adult male that’s never been married and doesn’t have any kids, so the responses I was given from a father and a grandmother concerning the excessive cursing broadcasted on cable television were unexpected. They have no problem with ESPN broadcasting vulgar language on television, because both emphasized it’s an important job for parents, not ESPN, to monitor content for their children.
Hale and Rigsby helped me realize the responsibility lie solely on the parents to control what content their children watch. Parents have the technology to monitor and block content, so parents have no excuse and no one to blame but themselves for neglectful parenting. Their logic helped me realize it’s the parent’s responsibility and allowed me to see it from their point of view. Their logic made me realize that I didn’t think about my original opinion enough. They enlightened me about censorship, which made me rethink my opinion.
The first thing that came to mind concerning censorship was Comedian, George Carlin, and “the seven dirty words you can never say on television” joke from 1972. Brown Political Review reported Carlin’s joke forced him into a Supreme Court case in 1978, FCC vs. Pacifica Foundation, where the court ruled in favor of Carlin, because the court determined his language was “indecent not obscene”.
I believe that court decision is the reason I’ve now heard all seven of those words at some point on television.
Nathaniel Klubin, Brown Political Review writer, believes Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” joke led to more lax rules on television, and in 1999 CBS broadcasted an episode of “Chicago Hope” with the word “shit” uncensored for the first time ever on network television. By 2001, an episode of “South Park” aired using that word a total of 200 times, making it more common to on television.
“200 uses of one of the most indecent words is a milestone,” Klubin said. “and the lack of consequence shows the progress made towards normalizing and accepting swear words on a national forum.”
It’s my opinion that the most significant reason behind the lax rules for television is the invention of cable television. As more people started paying for cable television, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began losing their abilities to monitor the content for the cable stations. So, The FCC had to lighten the rules, allowing cable stations to have more responsibilities to advertisers than the FCC.
Klubin believes the growth of vulgar language on television accelerated when Donald Trump was elected President. President Trump’s vulgar language caught the attention of reporters all over. So, all the reporters repeated the curse words used by President Trump in their report and broadcasted uncensored on multiple channels.
“Overusing swear words makes them less intense, less impactful, and in general, less special,” Klubin said. “There are benefits to making crude language more accessible, but there is a downside to too much of anything.”
In an interview with Terri Hale, mother of three and grandmother to seven children younger than 8 years old, in an interview indicated people started to realize the increase in vulgarity of language on television 20 years ago. Some people cared, but some didn’t. Hale switched the subject by emphasizing the importance of parents closely monitoring the content their children are consuming.
“I’m not worried about my grandchildren watching inappropriate content, because of the schedule my kids have for their children and the measures they’ve taken to monitor the content the children watch,” Hale said. “I’m worried about other children.”
Hunter Rigsby, father of four girls, has a system much like Hale’s for his daughters. His girls don’t watch much live television, because they stream television on their iPads. Rigsby believes streaming television is easier to monitor, because they have so many settings to select. Then like Hale, Rigsby emphasized that it’s the parent’s job to monitor content for their children. Rigsby and his wife use full advantage of parental block and monitoring settings while giving his girls a time limit for being on any devices.
Rigsby’s not worried about his girls watching anything they shouldn’t, because he stays ahead monitoring what they watch.
“It’s not too hard monitoring what they watch at their age now,” Rigsby said. “but as they get older it’ll be harder to monitor their devices, because they’ll be more advanced in technology.”
“The Last Dance” has provided sports fans something new, exciting and different to look to forward to watching every week. This is a time of year fans are looking forward to the start of the NBA Playoffs, but COVID-19 has halted all live sports and possibly ended the 2019/2020 NBA season. I think ESPN chose the perfect time to premiere this docuseries, because the docuseries doesn’t have to compete for viewers with live sports.
“The Last Dance” has already cemented itself in my top 3 documentaries of all time after only four episodes, and it has left me full of anticipation for an entire week after watching both episodes every Sunday night for the past two weeks.
Hale is not interested in “The Last Dance”, but Rigsby and I love the docuseries. We both are looking forward to two new episodes premiering on ESPN Sunday nights for the three weeks, and we wait all week with the anticipation of the next two episodes.
After talking to Hale and Rigsby, my opinion has completely changed concerning censorship on television. I think ESPN is doing a great thing for sports fans everywhere by airing “The Last Dance” uncensored on ESPN, and it would be a shame if they got in trouble for the content and language used in the docuseries.
ESPN is giving a gift to sports fans while we all face COVID-19, not trying to corrupt children. It would make me sad if people attacked ESPN’s image over this incredibly interesting docuseries, because of its content and vulgar language.
It’s the parent’s job to make sure their children don’t watch “The Last Dance” uncensored on ESPN. Remember that it’s not a part of any ESPN’s job descriptions.
So, my opinion is for all parents with young children. Please monitor the content your children are watching. Also, if you want to watch “The Last Dance” censored, all you have to do is switch the channel from ESPN to ESPN2.
Tripp Vistica 