Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Listen up, deaf people

The US Department of Education, unhappy that they weren't getting enough action in Bush's rape-and-pillage tour of the US, set up an anonymous 5-person panel of censors to make sure that tax dollars are not being used to (among other things) promote 'witchcraft'. To that end, they have released a list of shows that will no longer be close-captioned, stating that only 'educational, news or informational' shows will be alter-abled. This sort of 'star-chamber' lawmaking completely disregarded federal rulemaking processes requiring that the public have input on such issues.

The list of over 200 shows includes everything from Pokemon and the Powerpuff Girls to NASCAR and PGA golf. Personally, I think they should not just cut the captioning, I think they should cut the video and audio as well, for those shows and almost all of the rest of them, but selectively choosing to deny captioning to the deaf without any input from the public just has a sort of "taking candy from babies" feel to it... not that it looks out of place in this administration. This sort of disregard for the will of the people is right up Bush's street... i.e. it's twisted, and narrow, and only one-way.

The National Association of the Deaf and the National Council on Disability feel that this is censorship that removes parents rights to make informed decisions on appropriate programming for their children... hrmmm, that sounds like those 'family values' Bush is always yammering about.