The culture war that ate humanity

NYT today:

The Parents Television Council spent most of the last decade as a conservative superstar in the culture wars.

But the organization now finds itself damaged, defanged by court challenges to the F.C.C.’s hard-line position, by its own dwindling finances and by internal troubles that resulted in its accusing a former senior employee of extortion. Meanwhile, the entertainment industry — once so afraid of the council’s wrath that Fox blurred the naked behind of an animated character — is pushing the boundaries of taste with renewed intensity.

Forget cartoon nudity. One of CBS’s new fall sitcoms is called “$#*! My Dad Says” (ed. note: "$#*!"="shit") A catchy song with a highly vulgar title and chorus by the Warner Music Group singer Cee Lo Green (ed. note: "Fuck You!"; The Smeezingtons, c. 2010 Warner Music) has burned up the Web. Miley Cyrus, the 17-year-old Disney star, writhes on a bed in black underwear in her new music video (ed. note: “Who Owns My Heart”).