I am as outraged as you are to see suffering offered up for entertainment. I just sent off a bunch of emails complaining to American Broadcast Co. for allowing "America's [supposedly] Funniest Videos" to broadcast a film of a little boy (approx. 6 yrs old) who was sitting on the toilet. He was crying in pain in obvious distress. The audience laughed louder and louder as his cries became more and more desperate. The only compassion for this poor kid came from the family dog who sat right next to him with a concerned look on his face. Mom just kept the camera rolling. These people won a $10,000 prize and a chance to rebroadcast this abuse for a chance at a $100,000 prize. The poor kid was made to sit in the audience between his clueless parents as the show's host stuck a microphone in his face asking him how he felt about his family getting all that cash for a film of him on the toilet. Really!

If this woman had gone out into her neighborhood and rounded up strangers to come laugh at her sick kid while he cried on the toilet, she'd be up on child abuse charges. Yet, here she was with full cooperation of ABC and AFV showing the whole world.

I didn't care for the funniest cats clip that had people laughing as a poor little kitten tried to escape from a cactus garden. The camera just kept on rolling as this poor kittie kept getting hurt...

Sigh...

I don't watch much television. I do resort to using it as a distraction when I am too ill to leave the house and have no attention span for reading. I am horrified at what passes for entertainment - or news for that matter.

Think I'll tune up the guitar and sing a coupla bars of John Prine's "Spanish Pipe Dream" the chorus of which goes:

Blow up the TV
Throw away the paper
Move into the country
Build a little home
Plant a little garden
Eat a lot of peaches
And go find Jesus
all on your own....

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JK