Here's a project that would be beneficial for any household, but essential for one containing children.
All late model TVs are equipped with parental controls such as V-chip technology, to control viewing of adult-rated programs, and channel selection, to delete channels from the surfing lineup. Even many older models at least have channel selection. (My ancient, coal-fired 1989 Panasonic has it.)
Why not dust off your TV's instruction booklet and learn how to use these functions? You can then set ratings for programs to be viewed in your home and delete the channels with objectionable material. MTV and the E! channel would make excellent deletion choices. Most systems have other prime candidates as well.
If you want to be really good soldier in the war against trash TV, also drag out your last cable bill and find the company's phone number or web address, then contact them and let them know which channels you have deleted from your TV's lineup, and why you would like to see those channels removed from the cable system altogether. Every advertisement for a new channel includes a plea to "Call your cable company and ask for the XYZ Network!" Since such calls are effective for adding channels to a cable lineup, it follows that they would also be effective in getting one removed. Along with your request for deletions, suggest some good replacements.
Finally, if you want to be a hero, also contact the offending channels' management and tell them why you object to their channels' content; that you have deleted them from your personal TV system, and have asked your cable company to remove them from the system lineup.
Use this link to contact MTV Chairman Tom Freston and Sumner Redstone - CEO of Viacom, which owns MTV. You can send a message to the E! channel's customer service staff here.
(If you find this site useful and would like to help make political devotions a mass movement, please tell others about PoliticalDevotions.com or place a link to it on your website. Then when you've done so, be sure to e-mail me so I can thank you personally! - Tim.)
