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This morning I read in the Rocky Mountain News that James Dobson is calling for his followers to lobby Major League Baseball in effort to prevent Time Warner from selling the Atlanta Braves to cable magnate John Malone. Focus on the Family—based in Colorado Springs—objects to the sale because Malone’s Liberty Media owns OnCommand, known for delivering in-room movies and Internet to hotels.
Okay. Some of the movies that OnCommand delivers are watered down porn titles. (Don’t ask me how I know. Just trust me on this.)
From the story:
Liberty owns a tangle of assets and operating companies, ranging from stakes in News Corp. to home-shopping channel QVC, and rarely draws notice outside of business circles. The company came to Focus on the Family's attention when Stephen Adams, associate editor of the group's Citizen magazine, began working on an article about the biggest U.S. corporations involved in the porn industry. Liberty topped the yet-to-be published list, Adams said.
"They're going to sell a team to pornographers," he said. "This is a reach too far, and we've got to say something about it."
It’s a very interesting and noble position. And one not wholly unexpected from an organization like Focus.
It did make me wonder, though, whether the group was similarly upset when Time Warner bought the team from Ted Turner. After all, TW’s lengthy list of holdings makes the company a merchant of sex, murder, mayhem and violence when you consider its various movie, book and television properties and products. I couldn’t find anything showing that Focus did object.
Is this position disingenuous? In many respects I think it is. Browsing around the Focus Web site, there’s a section for movie reviews that provides a relatively balanced assessment of current movies in theaters. The review for You, Me and Dupree, for example, gave an honest look at the content of the movie, pointing out both positive and spiritual elements of the movie alongside the things the reviewer found objectionable (there was plenty).
The reviewer even mentioned that the movie had opportunities to be more, mentioning themes ranging from the importance for communication between spouses, lessons of love and friendship, and so forth. In the end, the reviewer recommended that families skip this movie because the opportunities for goodness were squandered by the the crass nature of the humor.
I’m not a parent, but I can see how having this kind of information could be helpful. These days, according to the parents I do know, getting help is a good thing when it comes to raising kids.
But, again, I come back to wondering whether mobilizing the troops to prevent Malone from buying a baseball team is fulfilling the mission of the organization. Unlike the movie above, I doubt Liberty Media will be filling the Atlanta Braves product with content the organization deems objectionable.
Frankly, I’m not sure I have the answer to my question. Does it even matter? Certainly, Focus can do just about anything it pleases—much the same way Major League Baseball and Liberty Media can.
And it looks like that’s exactly what will happen.
Tags: atlanta_braves, current_movies, focus_on_the_family, james_dobson, john_malone, liberty_media, movies_in_theaters, movie_reviews, rocky_mountain_news
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