Errr... shiver....

[rhu]

Saturday morning Tani, our 5-year-old son, started asking me questions about "why bad guys are using rocket ships to shoot bombs into Israel." After answering lots of questions (which means he pretty much knows all about the war at this point) I asked him where he had heard about this in the first place. Turns out we had left the TV tuned to "ABC Family" after watching Whose Line Thursday night, stupidly figuring that a network called "ABC Family" would be child safe. When Tani turned on the TV on Friday morning, before he switched it to PBS, he saw what he called "a minute of a grown-up news show."

So I just looked up the "ABC Family" schedule online and learned that the "news" program that Tani saw at 9am was The 700 Club.

So on the one hand, he learned about the war in Israel, which I'd been hoping to keep him from finding out about. (Fortunately he didn't seem too scared about it, even though we have close friends who are IY"H making Aliyah in a little over two weeks.)

On the other hand, at least he heard it from someone with a pro-Israel perspective.

But on the other hand, he might have heard Pat talk about how Jews will be damned in the end of days. Or how we should pray for God to kill Supreme Court justices. Or how we should pray for the CIA to kill Venezuelan presidents.

So "ABC Family" joins "Comedy Central" on the list of channels not to leave the TV tuned to before bed.

Comments

[sethg]

"ABC Family" used to be the Christian Broadcasting Network; it was then sold to Fox and then to ABC. IIRC one of the conditions attached to the sales was that the purchasing network had to keep running The 700 Club.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

I've read the same. Because of a fondness for Whose Line and a flailing, screaming reaction to 700, I tried using the child-lock codes of my Comcast DVR to block it and Living the Life. ("Would you like to hear miraculous stories?") I wanted to make sure any program-metering Comcast might do on its boxes didn't get skewed by that garbage if I happened to record an episode of Whose Line and the tuner then left itself there. Unfortunately, the lock automatically also blocks any program the box can't identify, and the box loses all program IDs any time it loses power or goes flaky, which is unfortunately often. So it didn't really work, more's the pity; I found a sort of poetry in child-locking 700 and watching The Shield on the same box.

[michelel72.livejournal.com]

Oh! On the upside, after ol' Pat started praying for people to die, ABC Family started running a disclaimer before 700, indicating that the following program does not represent the views of the station. I'd be happier if they'd bury the thing at about 4am, but I don't know all of the restrictions, and I appreciate that they do at least make the effort.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Oy. Just oy.

What sethg_prime said.

[ericberlin.livejournal.com]

I have noted Blazing Saddles and I Know What You Did Last Summer on ABC Family. Both heavily edited, of course. But still.

[cellio]

Wow. Just goes to show how little names mean, I guess. "Family" indeed.

(We have a few stations here that time-share, so that's what I initially thought had happened to you. You know, Comedy Central by night and Shopping Network by day -- that kind of thing.)

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

i think i'd rather leave the tv on comedy central. fart jokes and new words for sex seem less damaging.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Ouch. No, that doesn't seem like a "family" show...