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The US _does_ have examples of government censorship in media, some more extreme than others. The fact you don't even think of it as censorship just shows how p

The US _does_ have examples of government censorship in media, some more extreme than others. The fact you don't even think of it as censorship just shows how prevalent it is. It's not on the same level as the CCP, but it does exist! For example, during the AIDs epidemic, Reagan used his social and political power to effectively ban the mention of that word on primetime television (remember, not only was he the president of the United States, he was also once the president of the Screen Actors Guild). Not even Will And Grace, a 1998 sitcom about a gay couple, was allowed to mention AIDs or HIV at all in its 11 season run! He's also the reason movies in the 80s got away with so much more than they did even in the 90s, when cultural values themselves hadn't changed that much comparatively. the MPAA board was completely sized up, what was allowed to be said on TV was changed, and seemingly arbitrary rules put in place ("Fuck" can be said only once in a PG-13 movie or once-an-episode in certain network shows ONLY if it's non-sexual). This is why you have classic kids movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, PG) that if they were re-released today would be either R or possibly not even allowed to be shown a wide release in theaters. And you know, now we have the whole "banned books" things in (my home state of) Texas, Florida, etc, which almost exclusively censors books with deal with LGBTQ and race issues from even being available in a library to be checked out by a curious student on their own time (including, in a Dallas suburb and throughout Virginia, Anne Frank's Diary).

jibe 4y ago
This sounds a little crazy. AIDS was definitely discussed in TV in the 80s. First of all on the news all the time, but in prime time dramas and sitcom as well. CNN documents several examples. https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/01/entertainment/80s-hollywood-aids-crisis https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/01/entertainment/80s-hollywood-a... St Elsewhere might have been the first in 1983. Golden Girls, Trapper John MD. There was plenty of hesitancy to deal with a difficult subject, and the gay element compounded the difficulty (openly gay characters were not common). But to suggest it was at the direction of the Federal Govt is totally absurd. Reagan was as disliked and mocked almost as much as Trump was.
- hindsightbias 4y ago
  Three TV episodes in the 80’s is not a lot of samples in 10s of thousands of prime time TV.
  - jibe 4y ago
    It isn't none, it isn't an exhaustive list, and it should be enough to dispel the claim that there was some sort of white house directive to "ban the mention of that word on primetime television". If you have some evidence to support your claim please share it.
    - thebradbain 4y ago
      I never said white house directive, but I said he used his social and political power to effectively ban it from, well, really being talked about in the spotlight. There's truly plenty of articles on the subject, or you can ask anyone in Los Angeles who worked in the industry about the concerted effort of Hollywood executives to avoid that word at the behest of Reagan's administration. Also, your examples are not particularly illustrative. Reagan did not even publicly mention AIDs until 1985 (though reporters had been asking him about it since 1982), when it first started to become worrisome to straight people (and still created no presidential task force or dedicated funding until 1987). Golden Girls mentioned it after that. So did Trapper John, MD. St. Elsewhere was notable precisely because it was one of the only primetime shows that did when it was exclusively thought of as a "gay disease". To truly understand how insidious Reagan's administration was, when doctors were ringing the alarm bells in press conferences years prior (and the next, and the next, and the next...) Reagan's response was to ask any reporter if they were gay to a crowd of laughter and move on. In fact, Nancy Reagan even arguably personally condemned movie star Rock Hudson, who was a personal friend of theirs, to an earlier death by explicitly refusing his appeal to have him admitted into a retroviral trial in France because they did want to be associated with the gay community in any way. https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/03/nancy-reagan-refused-help-dying-rock-hudson-get-aids-treatment https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/03/nancy-reagan... It's really not too big of a jump to make the connection between a man who basically started the "moral majority" movement and created virtually all modern film and tv regulation to this day (aside from the MPAA, he also repealed the FCC Fairness Doctrine, which basically is what gave rise to the giant split in media today, and really all major legislation around what can/cannot be shown on TV/in theaters that still persists to this day), would actively use his power to discourage AIDs from being talked about in media, just as he did Communism, anything non-nuclear family, and really anything that fell outside his bubble of conservative values. This was the man who effectively started the war on Hollywood. He came from Hollywood. He knew the studio execs, the donors, the investors (they funded him!), it wouldn't take much for them to listen to him.

jibe 4y ago

This sounds a little crazy. AIDS was definitely discussed in TV in the 80s. First of all on the news all the time, but in prime time dramas and sitcom as well. CNN documents several examples. https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/01/entertainment/80s-hollywood-aids-crisis https://www.cnn.com/2016/06/01/entertainment/80s-hollywood-a... St Elsewhere might have been the first in 1983. Golden Girls, Trapper John MD. There was plenty of hesitancy to deal with a difficult subject, and the gay element compounded the difficulty (openly gay characters were not common). But to suggest it was at the direction of the Federal Govt is totally absurd. Reagan was as disliked and mocked almost as much as Trump was.

hindsightbias 4y ago
Three TV episodes in the 80’s is not a lot of samples in 10s of thousands of prime time TV.
- jibe 4y ago
  It isn't none, it isn't an exhaustive list, and it should be enough to dispel the claim that there was some sort of white house directive to "ban the mention of that word on primetime television". If you have some evidence to support your claim please share it.
  - thebradbain 4y ago
    I never said white house directive, but I said he used his social and political power to effectively ban it from, well, really being talked about in the spotlight. There's truly plenty of articles on the subject, or you can ask anyone in Los Angeles who worked in the industry about the concerted effort of Hollywood executives to avoid that word at the behest of Reagan's administration. Also, your examples are not particularly illustrative. Reagan did not even publicly mention AIDs until 1985 (though reporters had been asking him about it since 1982), when it first started to become worrisome to straight people (and still created no presidential task force or dedicated funding until 1987). Golden Girls mentioned it after that. So did Trapper John, MD. St. Elsewhere was notable precisely because it was one of the only primetime shows that did when it was exclusively thought of as a "gay disease". To truly understand how insidious Reagan's administration was, when doctors were ringing the alarm bells in press conferences years prior (and the next, and the next, and the next...) Reagan's response was to ask any reporter if they were gay to a crowd of laughter and move on. In fact, Nancy Reagan even arguably personally condemned movie star Rock Hudson, who was a personal friend of theirs, to an earlier death by explicitly refusing his appeal to have him admitted into a retroviral trial in France because they did want to be associated with the gay community in any way. https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids https://www.vox.com/2015/12/1/9828348/ronald-reagan-hiv-aids https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/03/nancy-reagan-refused-help-dying-rock-hudson-get-aids-treatment https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/03/nancy-reagan... It's really not too big of a jump to make the connection between a man who basically started the "moral majority" movement and created virtually all modern film and tv regulation to this day (aside from the MPAA, he also repealed the FCC Fairness Doctrine, which basically is what gave rise to the giant split in media today, and really all major legislation around what can/cannot be shown on TV/in theaters that still persists to this day), would actively use his power to discourage AIDs from being talked about in media, just as he did Communism, anything non-nuclear family, and really anything that fell outside his bubble of conservative values. This was the man who effectively started the war on Hollywood. He came from Hollywood. He knew the studio execs, the donors, the investors (they funded him!), it wouldn't take much for them to listen to him.