"Rescue Me" - FX Network show is being thrown into the fire.

The FX network on cable has a show entitled, "Rescue Me". This show is about firefighters and their lives on and off the job. Recently an episode was aired which depicted a man having sex with his ex-wife. The sex started out forceful and eventually the ex-wife. I personally have not seen the episode, and according to the PTC (Parents Television Council), this started as a rape and took off from there. They have urged people to write to Congress in order to push for cable a-la-carte and to explicitly mention this episode. They are also urging people to write to the sponsor of the show to discourage them from supporting such a TV show.

First of all, this television show is on at 10pm when it airs. This is because of the language and sometimes possible graphic content. If a child is watching this kind of television show at 10pm at night, the question that should be asked is, "Where are mom and dad?". I realize that it can be hard to keep an eye on everything that a child is doing at all times. No one said that parenthood is easy. If a parent can not control a simple television, what else do they not have control of? The new televisions have parental controls, and a box can be added to an older television to add such a feature.

The parent's job is to educate the children as to what is acceptable and what is not. I know that television has been blamed for violence in the home for sometime. I have a niece which has been educated what is right and wrong. She is currently 10 years old, and she know what is fantasy and what is real. When she is watching a television show or a movie, she will either censor herself by looking away. If she doesn't manage to do so, she does not repeat the actions taken by the characters. Everyday I see parents who don't care what the child is doing. Just yesterday my fianceé saw a boy who was spitting soda into his sister's face while the parent stood right next to them and did nothing. Speaking of bad parenting, I recall a news story from Santa Ana, California. On Feburary 23rd of 2006, a 23 year old woman was gang raped by 7 gang members along with 3 other woman present in the hotel room where this took place. On of the most disgusting facts about this story is that a mother of one of the gang members was there and she encourage the rape. This was not a fantasy depiction of rape, this was very real. I can not believe that things like this are being blamed on television and movies. They know what they were doing was very wrong and should have never happened. This is a perfect example of bad parenting, and there things that are more important than what is on TV. If the parents really cared, then they would make the time to find out what their children are doing and what they arew watching on the television. I work in the schools of Los Angeles, and some of these children use profanities more freely than most adults. The real accountability lies with the parental figures in the household.

Source: Gang members charged in rape allegedly watched by mother of one
Source Date: March 14, 2006

Source: PTC Outraged Over Graphic Rape Scene on FX’s Rescue Me
Source Date: June 29, 2006

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