Pinko Magazine Hedonism + Activism

Monday, September 01, 2008 - Concerned parents protest the season 2 premiere of Gossip Girl

Benjamin Svetkey has a great article in the most recent Entertainment Weekly in which he casts the racy landscape of our pop culture (teenagers making with the oral sex during school hours on 90210) against the quaint olden days when Murphy Brown getting knocked up was viewed as the seventh seal of the apocalypse.

Svetkey points out that even if Sarah Palin and her army of book burning moose-zombie stormtroopers conservatives did want to ignite a new culture war, the political landscape is so dominated by actual issues that people don’t really care about who blew who on the CW.

But perhaps the article’s most telling moment comes from Tim Winter who is trying to fight the good fight in spite of the poor odds.

(The Parents Television Council) president Tim Winter tries to keep the faith despite public apathy. ”There’s a famous Civil War battle, the Second Battle of Bull Run,” he says. ”The Confederate army ran out of bullets, so they started throwing stones at the Union army. It does sometimes feel…like we’ve run out of bullets.”

So, just to be clear, the president of The Parents Television Council compared his efforts to those of the Confederate army. Yes. That Confederate army. If there was any confusion about what exactly we are dealing with, hopefully that just cleared things up.

The PTC… Confederate army… Yowzers.

Also, you do know who won that one, don’t you Tim?

About The Author - Stirling McLaughlin is an Art Director, Designer and Illustrator in New York City. Stirling enjoys vegan baking, expensive sportswear and mustard and relish sandwiches. Stirling lives in Manhattan with his wife and daughter. - Visit Stirling's site.