 |
         
|
Bob Faw's feature in NBC's Kids Now series profiled the arguments of Denver Post columnist David Harsanyi in his book Nanny State. Harsanyi argues that children are coddled, overprotected, shielded from disappointments. Faw's list of woes ran the gamut from the frankly silly to perfectly sensible precautions: banning dodgeball and tag as roughhouse games; rewarding losers with sports trophies; teaching yoga for stress relief; implanting GPS tracking devices in shoes; fitting CCTV cameras in school buses; designing safer playgrounds; forbidding parental second hand smoke; discouraging schoolyard bullies.
Yet Harsanyi's overall thesis that it is safe to let kids be kids happened to be confronted by the harshness of the rest of the news agenda. CBS' Nancy Cordes (no link) filed a feature The Truth About Toys on lead-tainted imports from China. Much of the contamination is minuscule, she reported, but regulators have found "dangerous levels in children's jewelry"…NBC's Chris Jansing offered a follow-up on last week's Buckweed fire that destroyed 21 homes and burned 38,000 acres in Santa Clarita Cal. That blaze was started by a ten-year-old boy playing with matches…ABC's Jim Avila returned to the "brutal mutilation murder" of three eight-year-old Arkansas cub scouts in 1993. A jury appears to have falsely blamed it on the Satanic ritual of "misfit teenagers" and the true killer is probably still at large.
Lead poisoning…brush fires…mutilation murders. Faw and Harsanyi chose the wrong news day to denigrate keeping a watchful eye on children.
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
