NBC is airing edited episodes of VeggieTales. All "non-historical" mention of God or the Bible have been deleted, apparently.
Click here to read the story.
NBC has responded, saying, "NBC is committed to the positive messages and universal values of 'VeggieTales.' Our goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible with these positive messages, while being careful not to advocate any one religious point of view."
Veggie creator Phil Visher is upset. According to the LA Times, he said, "It's a mistake to pitch 'VeggieTales' as just values because fundamentally it's about God."
Let's do a Richard Niebuhr thing with this: So, is this an example of "cucumber of culture?" Or maybe it is "cucumber against culture?" What do you think?
Hat tip to Bill Tammeus
4 comments:
hey, where's MY hat tip! I just want you to love me Andy!
This one strikes me as bordering on absurd.
I don't see anyone as necessarily being "in the wrong" here, but the "tightrope" that NBC tries to walk here is ridiculous. Why even mess with the material if it's clearly advocating from a religious viewpoint? (Incidentally, it's not entirely clear what "religion" to put the veggie tales in since most of the stories hail from the old testament if I remember correctly).
I think it's a good thing that the market is apparently asking for values based programming and at least one (greedy or entreprenurial) capitalist is meeting the markets need. It also certainly offsets the garbage they put on most of the time.
What's absurd about it is they are highly committed to cleansing their material of any religious advocacy, but they don't have any issue airing those things that are "opposite or opposed to religious sensibilities" ie sex, drug use, crude humor, and violence. Apparently it's OK to offend the religious people with that, but by gosh, were certainly not going to cross this other line and offend someone with any reference to, or appearance of, advocacy for a real religion.
I find it beyond absurd, yet not suprising.
If my scorecard is correct:
NBC has no compunction to air Madonna strapped on a cross, but feels compelled to edit Veggie Tales. Hmmmmm?
Dark Gable
Will there be anything left of Veggie Tales if God is edited out??
Post a Comment