AS TWO RECENT REPORTS FROM THE FOX ATTACKS PROJECT @ Brave New Films have exposed to that proven disinfectant of air and sunshine, Fox Noise has this nasty little repute for having female newsreaders wear sexually-provocative or otherwise titillating clothing on camera, and then for no other purpose than sexual gratification on the part of its audience @ the Park & Flush Trailer Park.

Such, methinks, on deliberate orders of Keith Rupert "himself," and then solely for "keeping the audience in their proper place" short of outright Page Three behaviour. And yet the same forces of the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right seeing Fox Noise as the only credible news channel worth the trust and confidence of "right-thinking Americans" otherwise not expected to know much, who otherwise take issue with all manner of "indecency" to the point of unleashing hysteria causing no end of added work burden for the Federal Communications Commission, have yet to take issue in this respect.

Need I remind these same Elmer Gantry types that "silence equals acceptance;" hence, by your keeping silent on this particular issue of sexual titillation, you are giving lip service to Fox Noise for allowing such as you would otherwise look upon as "indecency."

(I hope to address this further in a forthcoming Open Letter.)

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IN CASE YOU NEED PRECEDENT FOR HOW THE APPEARENCE OF SEXUALLY-PROVOCATIVE DRESS can get one in Dutch, consider the following recent adjudication against European cut-price airline Ryanair by Britain's Advertising Standards Authority:

Ad
Press ads in the Herald, Daily Mail and Scottish Daily Mail were headed "HOTTEST BACK TO SCHOOL FARES."  Underneath the heading was a picture of a teenage girl or woman standing in a classroom and wearing a version of a school uniform consisting of a short tartan skirt, a cropped short sleeved shirt and tie and long white socks.  Body copy stated one way fares to Derry, Belfast, Budapest, Grenoble and Stockholm (Skavsta) were £10 including taxes and charges.  A footnote stated "Book until midnight 23.08.07.  Subject to availability, terms & conditions.  Flights direct from Glasgow (Prestwick)."

Issue
The ASA received complaints from 13 readers.  They believed it was offensive to show what appeared to be a schoolgirl posing and dressing provocatively and that the ad implied there were sexual connotations to the image.

Response
Ryanair said the ad ran in three national daily newspapers with a combined circulation of 3.5 million.  They said that, in that context, they considered 13 complaints was an insignificant number, which they believed clearly demonstrated the overwhelming majority of UK residents did not find the ad offensive.

Ryanair disagreed that the ad suggested sexual connotations.  They believed it was obvious that the image was of a woman fully clothed and that the short skirt and bare midriff were representative of the type of clothing that was fashionable among young women in the UK.  They believed the ad was likely to be found offensive only by the minority of people who were likely to find any such representation objectionable.  They believed the ad was considerably less suggestive than much of what appeared regularly in ads or other promotions in UK media.

The Herald said they had received a complaint from one reader about the ad and that they were not prepared to run it again.

The Daily Mail and Scottish Daily Mail said they had not received complaints direct from their readers but nevertheless would not run the ad again.

Assessment
Upheld
The ASA considered the model's clothing, which included long white socks and a tie, together with the setting of the ad in a classroom strongly suggested she was a schoolgirl.  We considered that her appearance and pose, in conjunction with the heading "HOTTEST," appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour and was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence.

The ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Social responsibility) and 5.1 (Decency).

Action
We welcomed The Herald and the Daily and Scottish Mails's assurances that they would not run the ad again.  We told Ryanair to withdraw the ad and to ensure that future ads complied with the CAP Code.

Fox Noise, for its part, will likely play the patsy that their audience (for the most part poor, undereducated and easily-led) has no regard for decency in the first place; hence, they "deserve" such carefully-scripted doses of titillation and sexual provocation.

Not Only That: Fox Noise doesn't take too kindly towards the poor as an article of faith, as witness these rather uncalled-for comments from Bill O'Reilly:

Satisfied, readers?

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CONSISTENT WITH THIS BLOG'S BELIEF THAT "IT'S A SMALL WORLD, AFTER ALL," and that we "morally-superior" Americans could learn a few things from the broader world @ large, Your Correspondent feels it best to note where the Australian motor club NRMA is calling upon the New South Wales state government to move more of the freight traffic currently hauled by over-the-road trucks to rail transport.

The rationale therefor?

A series of recent accidents involving OTR trucks on the F3 freeway in Sydney's northern suburbs as led to major traffic disruptions near the Hawkesbury River bridge, not to mention traffic diversions onto Old Pacific Highway.

What would stand in the way of us Americans from thinking likewise?