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Tuesday, May 16, 2006

The War on Podcasting

Kay, this was just too funny and slightly disturbing NOT to post. Stick this in the "only in America" category. I started reading this bit from Podcasting News, and since it had the political spin to it, I, being the slightly political person that I am, HAD to investigate further.

Well- OMFG! Shelly The Republican's blog had some interesting things to say about those bastions of liberal brainwashing known to us as podcasts:

"And now just as television is safe again, a new danger has raised it's demonic head: Invented by the Apple Computer company, the iPod is a device for receiving coded transmissions called "Podcasts". The iPod was originally marketed as a fashion accessory, and it initially became popular amongst Blue-State "metrosexual" communities."

Coded transmissions? Oh- it gets better:

"We all know that science fiction is a dangerously corrupting influence on young minds. Science fiction novels can make children nervous and excitable. I have heard many cases of science fiction addicts rejecting authority and embracing alternative lifestyles, but how much worse could a science fiction podcast be?"

A lot worse, according to the site. Citing the episode My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie, Escape Pod is called "the start of a slippery-slope towards eternal damnation."

The site even gives the podcast a CAP Entertainment Media Analysis report, rating it a devilish 8.1 out of 100:

escape_pod_capa.JPG


So distraught are they about these evils, they wrote a second entry, with more information about these podcasts, their CAP reports, and how they reach into your children's brains, wrap their hands around it, and proceed to expand the mind....

I am going to assume that this is all tongue-in-cheek- but I can't help but wonder just who may take this seriously. (One word of advice for Shelley and her fellow crusaders: if you're going to have a campaign with a petition for people to sign, make sure you spell campaign correctly. You wouldn't want anyone to laugh you off as a nut job, eh?)

OMFG! I'd love to know what you all think about this one- is this for real??? And has anyone told Escape Pod? Steve must be getting a kick out of this!
~Dani

8 comments:

DecoderRing said...

All Right, Who Blabbed!?

Honestly, people, we have been over this and over this and over this... how are we supposed to corrupt the youth with our secret coded backwards-talking messages if we tell people that we're doing it?

Seriously though, quite aside from the whole "Wisdom-index graph-thingy" (and give yourself a good, hard slap if you think that's any kind of objective rating system), it's perfectly fair to say that there are probably Podcasts out there that you wouldn't want your kids listening to. That's fair. But this kind of hysteria is no cure-all for half-assed underparenting.

And I say that as a guy whose show conforms pretty neatly to 1930-40's broadcast standards. Perhaps they should have done... y'know... some research...

Audio Addict said...

I know, I know... they should be more hush-hush about the corruption of our youth.

You know, I've listened to the Red Panda backwards, and the next thing I knew... well I can't remember. And I woke up with SUCH a splitting headache... hmmm...

Of course if you listen to something while walking backwards, you're bound to run into something. (yuk yuk yuk)

;-)
Dani

Anonymous said...

I was just disappointed that they didn't mention our podcast, Variant Frequencies. We are easily as offensive as Escape Pod.

Rich said...

Many people listen to podcasts while exercising... if you listen backwards, you might accidentally do your workout backwards... which could lead to putting pounds back on - and therefore improperly listening to podcasts could be a major cause of obesity in our youth... as well as the usual corruption and the liberal use of mayonnaise and/or miracle whip (which sadly turns out to be neither).

Audio Addict said...

They should have mentioned Destructemondo! as well- you can't get any more evil than talking about the world coming to an end from Zombies, robots, or Nazi's.....

And- CRAP! THAT explains why I went from 115lbs to 350lbs in the course of one summer... backwards exercising!

Dani

Rich said...

hack alert...

I 'borrowed' the backwards exercising idea from the Scott Adams (Dilbert) blog

Anonymous said...

I get to cross the picket lines tonight to watch "The DaVinci Code"....what's with these people? Why protest a work of fiction? If you really think that fiction can corrupt our youth, you'd better start protesting Disney movies....you wouldn't want your daughters to grow up, run away from home, and shack up with seven nasty little dwarves....

DecoderRing said...

....And cue the angry letters from the NAALP (that's right, the National Association for the Advancement of Little People)....