TV keeps getting worse and worse...

I've found a number of things on TV lately that I just could not laugh at, or which I found to be in poor taste. There are a couple that come to mind here...

- I was watching SNL this week. Remember when they used to be funny? It seems like SNL has fallen a long way from what it used to be. Yes, it's still political humor, and maybe some sex jokes, but it has gotten less tasteful lately. There was one skit that made my jaw drop in disbelief this week. They jumped on the Wienergate bandwagon, by making fun of his "dick pic". I could not laugh at that. I found it stupid in the first place that people are up in arms over this sorry excuse for a scandal. There's loads better things to be talking about. But let me be clear about this; I am not for adultery. I am not for anything which brings harm to another being, and he does his wife a great injustice by cheating on her. But that doesn't mean that the media should make a big stink out of it and jeopardize his career over small shit like this. It's dumb. That's the only way I could describe it.
- The other thing I wanted to talk about was these ads I'm seeing for this show called "Dance Moms". There is something which does not sit right with me about this show. Here we have these kids that look like they're barely in their teens, and they're wearing THE skimpiest outfits I've seen a 12 year old kid wear! (maybe younger, I'm not a good judge of age...) This is a point where most kids are just entering puberty, they aren't even aware of their own sexuality at this age, and they're already wearing over-sexualized clothing like those leotards you're seeing on the commercials. Yeah, young people do date. I had a friend like that when I was 7 or 8, so there's nothing wrong with that. It's just, that's too early an age to think about wearing something that a GROWN ADULT would be sexually attracted to. But that's not the only thing. In some ways I think this show is child abuse! They're YELLING AT THEIR CHILDREN! And it's not discipline either, it's for the purpose of RATINGS! They just want to act like drama whores so people will pay attention to their show.

Speaking of shows, I'm going to play the devil's advocate here... I think all the negative press surrounding the show "Skins" is largely unwarranted, and has more to do with societal taboos than moral concerns. It's old news, and in case you've missed it, let me fill you in; Skins is a teen drama from the UK, and it follows a group of 8 high school teenagers, different in each season, and explores different issues, including the one that got the show cancelled in the U.S.; Teen sexuality. Now, having been in high school not long ago, I can attest to the fact that at this point in my life, people had been talking about, and sometimes experimenting with, sex. It's a way of life. But the media attacked Skins, saying that it's like child pornography. To me, this is reach, because Dance Moms seems a lot more pornographic than skins, and these girls are 12! Yes, Skins has racy scenes, but at this point, their hormones are kicking in, so it's more believable and acceptable, in my opinion. Also, there are countries in other parts of the world where the legal age is lower than here, so playing the child pornography card seems unfair to Skins when other shows on our corner of the world have done worse. Now, in Britain, the show hasn't been received as negatively, and has in fact earned its share of rewards. Although I haven't seen the show, I thought while I was talking about television, I should at least shed some light on this, since the media reaction to Skins offended my sensibilities. I just felt like this show got bullied, and like the bully hater I am, I felt a need to stand up and say something to defend it.