Family Guy cartoon banned in Venezuela

I think we’d all agree that there are some bad TV re-runs out there that deserve to be taken off the air. But I’m not sure that Family Guy is one of them.

Venezuelan authorities have banned the cartoon from future broadcast. Any TV station that doesn’t drop the show will be fined.

What prompted this reaction? The recent episode in which Brian, the talking dog, started a campaign to legalize marijuana.

Watch out future cartoons, so you don’t offend the Venezuelan government! It has happened before, and it will surely happen again. The Simpsons was banned there last year because of its “messages that go against the whole education of boys, girl, and adolescents.”

Televen was one station threatened with a fine for showing The Simpsons in the morning hours. What did they do to avoid the fine? They were forced to show public service films as an apology. And they replaced The Simpsons with Baywatch.

Really, now. Baywatch is better?

It seems as though the government and TV in Venezuela are closely linked. President Hugo Chavez hosts his own talk show. And if new regulations go into effect, cable stations would be forced to broadcast all of Chavez’s speeches.

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