Bart Gordon Quotes

We have pleaded to the entertainment industry to raise their standards and protect our children.

Congress has repeatedly passed laws and otherwise raised a ruckus about indecent language on the broadcast airwaves used for radio and television.

If it's something that you are opposed to or you don't want your children or family to see, then do not watch it, and the market can send a message.

We sort of have given up on the idea of taking any sort of personal responsibility for what we see. I don't understand it at all. There are many things that I won't let my kids watch.

I avoid all the language and nudity and violence and everything. I have enough of that at home.

Parents should watch what their children watch and not use TV as a babysitter. If a show is objectionable they should turn it OFF. They should write the president of the network and tell him they are never going to watch that program again and why.

TV is a major force in our lives - a FORCE. It must be handled very carefully, both its censure and its artistic honesty.

I think a lot of the problem is that at 8 o'clock there's nothing on for kids.

If we want parents to be discerning about what children are watching then we need to put stuff in there for them to watch, too.

The public owns the airwaves; Congress gave them to broadcasters for free, with the understanding that they would serve the public interest while trying to maximize profit. An aspect of serving the public is to use the immense power of electronic media to reflect evolving standards of respect for other people.

The BBC should not have a cheerleader. It should have somebody who runs the organisation in the interests of the public and that should be a chairman.

I like to protect children. I mean, there's nothing wrong with having adult programming for mature adults that can selectively decide what they want to watch and what they don't want to watch.

In a day when broadcasters and publishers have rather free access into our homes, we must seek clean, uplifting entertainment, whether on television, videos, movies, magazines, books, and other printed material. We should be very selective and choose only those things that meet the test of being virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy.

The FCC has a moral obligation to protect the public from being ‘blitzed’ and ‘saturated’ with campaign ads.

If this newspaper pestilence shall continue for fifty years more, the intelligence of our people will be destroyed.... Hold fast and zealously, therefore, to the slogan I now ask you to make your own: hatred and contempt, death and destruction, of the press of today.

Those who do not serve the public interest should not hold a public license.

Regardless of the strength of the government's interest [in protecting children,] the level of discourse reaching a mailbox simply cannot be limited to that which would be suitable for a sandbox.

The job of media is the accountability of government.

Even in an enlightened democracy, the media have to check themselves to make sure they are not contributing to an unnecessary mass hysteria.

I was brought up when media still kept totally away from violence when it came to children. I don't think it would have made me scared of violence, but I find it repulsive.

I'm not against censorship in principle. Not at all. Some things should be censored.

Adults should be intelligent enough to know what they want - if you don't like it, then don't consume it. A rating system for kids and teens is more important. Especially for violent shows.

As a parent, you're struggling to find stuff that you think is suitable for the kids, but also stuff that you'd like to watch with them.

Let children come across good as well as bad things. MTV is unnecessarily criticised for dishing out obscenity.

The Press is such as the public demands, and the public demands bad newspapers because it has been badly educated.