Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Journalism FOX News Officially Steps into Activism
Posted by Josh Gross on Tue, May 11, 2010 at 1:23 PM
Just in case anyone out there still thinks FOX News is a news organization and not an tool of the hard right, or that Wikipedia is infallible: FOX News has claimed responsibility for inciting and orchestrating a purge of content on Wikipedia that they found objectionable. Namely, porn.
From a FOX News article....
The parent company of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia is rapidly purging thousands of explicit pornographic images from its websites as it prepares to announce a new policy regarding sexually explicit content in response to reporting by FoxNews.com.The move came as FoxNews.com was in the process of asking dozens of companies that have donated to Wikimedia Foundation—the umbrella group behind Wikimedia Commons and its Wiki projects, including Wikipedia—if they were aware of the extent of graphic and sexually explicit content on the sites.
The threat of public shaming through inferring guilt by association has long been a political tactic, seen often within electoral politics, as well as with boycott lists for companies that support Planned Parenthood.
After the kerfuffle began, Jimmy Wales, the president of the Wikimedia Foundation, had this to say about it in a note posted to the site.
Wikimedia Commons admins who wish to remove from the project all images that are of little or no educational value but which appeal solely to prurient interests have my full support. This includes immediate deletion of all pornographic images. We should keep educational images about sexuality—mere nudity is not pornography—but as with all our projects, editorial quality judgments must be made and will be made—appropriately and in good taste.
Comedian Lenny Bruce, who was tried repeatedly for obscenity over the content of his act, was found guilty on the basis that his work also held no redeeming or educational value, and that it appealed solely to the prurient interest. The offending joke, slightly abbreviated (and not available on Wikipedia):
"Did you read about the the two schoolteachers who were busted for homosexuality? ... What came out at the trial is that they're good teachers. And do you know how long it takes to make a good teacher? l'll tell you something else. There wasn't one incident reported where a kid came home and said we had five minutes of geography, five minutes of cocksucking.''
Seeing as how that's an important piece of legal and cultural history, as well as an obvious social critique that was found in a court of law to appeal solely to the prurient interest—Wikipedia's new apparent guideline for unacceptable—it's enough to make one wonder what the educational value of censorship is or why anyone still takes FOX seriously as a news outlet.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
I don't like Fox News, but I also don't feel porn belongs in an encyclopedia, online or otherwise. The trick, of course, is determining what's porn and what isn't, but media of all kind have to make that determination all the time.
I also don't see what this has to do with politics. At all. There are anti-porn people throughout the political spectrum.
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porn does not belong on a so called educational site, where anyone of any age can stumble across it. Oh no, someone has morals... how dare they.
Josh, go back to school.
Look at their ratings. More people watch them because they aren't spinning the news like the Lame Stream Media does.
Im sorry your liberal ass loves homos and avoiding the facts.
You sure live up to your last name..... You Sir are GROSS.
The "porn" on Wikipedia was used strictly as examples of and wasn't meant to be titillating at all. Fixed Noise just can't find a niche now that Repugnicans no longer have control of the White House and they lost their job as propaganda dissemblers. Now they have to help the John Birch Society create AstroTurf movements like the tea baggers and obtuse projects like the one described here. I'm sure this issue will end up misspelled and written with plenty of grammatical errors on a tea bagger placard soon.
My heart go's out to all the perverts and pedophiles, now that they will have one less avenue to search for their daily fix. What is wrong with having morels and trying to stand up to protect children? The age of innocence for children ends way to soon these days. Our society has turn the adult world into a garbage dump of political correctness that forces children to grow up way to soon.
I will do my part to fight the GOOD fight and hope someday soon people will stand up and say "I have had enough, and I'm not going to take it anymore".
I agree with Fox News and am glad they are reporting and calling Wikipedia out. Shame on you for opposing that. Sounds like jealousy to me.
I agree with Fox News and am glad they are reporting and calling Wikipedia out. Shame on you for opposing that. Sounds like jealousy to me. Fox is the best news outlet.
I agree with Fox and apprecaite them reporting on it. Wikipedia has no business posting porn. Sounds like jealousy to me on your part. Fox is the best news outlet.
What the hell? I thought FOX News always bitched about censorship if the 50 person klan rallies... I mean TEA Party rallies aren't covered. If a Wikipedia page on bukkake shows a broad with goo all over her, guess what that's encyclopedic content. In fact it's encyclopedic content that ANYONE can edit.
If you people are worried about 5 year olds finding these pictures you should be careful what vocabulary you teach them and more importantly pay attention to your kids so no one else has to. Come on where is that much touted personal responsibility? Babysit your kids with the internet? Convenient for you but really anything they find online is all your fault for not keeping an eye on them.
Or install content filters, I don't like them but they're out there and they work. Stop expecting everyone else to do your job and grab the bull by it's balls and maybe you can actually take control of your pedantic misanthropic life for a scintilla of a moment.
Maybe the personal freedom identifiers can stop selling the country a line of bullshit.
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