Lack Of Kids’ Shows Violates Law, Watchdogs Say

Watchdog groups have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission not to renew the licenses of two Washington, D.C., television stations. “The groups argue that the two stations have not complied with the FCC’s 1996 guidelines regarding the Children’s Television Act, which require stations to air at least three hours of educational programming for children per week. The act has never before been cited in a petition to revoke a license.”

Protesting A Movie Without Seeing It

There is a niggling problem with the outcry against the Toronto International Film Festival’s decision to screen “Casuistry: The Art Of Killing A Cat,” and it’s the same problem that accompanied the releases of “The Passion of the Christ” and “Fahrenheit 9/11”: The people working themselves into a righteous fury haven’t seen the movie.

The Aura Of Value

If artistic objects like Munch’s “The Scream” have monetary worth only because we agree that they do, what is it that makes us value them? “Myths develop around great artists, and objects associated with their actual physical presence become imbued, in many people’s minds, with some kind of spiritual aura.”

Conservative Authors Say Big Publishers Shut Them Out

Sure, conservative books — including “Unfit for Command,” this week’s No. 1 nonfiction title — have lately occupied a hefty percentage of the best-seller list. But at a Manhattan forum this week, right-wing authors said they were feeling marginalized. “Alleging a sort of liberal conspiracy to keep conservative authors from getting their books to the reading public, conservative authors said they had been forced to turn to scrappy, little-known alternative publishers.”