Give us programming choices

To the editor:

I am greatly alarmed by the programming on some of the so-called basic cable networks.

A special report by the Parents Television Council shows just how licentious and depraved some of the programming on basic cable is. I urge you to read the report, which can be found at www.ParentsTV.org. The PTC's report shows that basic cable is rife with some of the most obscene themes and content imaginable, including pornography, masturbation, oral sex, anal sex, threesomes, statutory rape, incest and bestiality. Why should I be forced to bring this sewage into my home in order to watch the Food Network or the Disney Channel? Why should parents have to subsidize channels that undermine their core values and beliefs? I ask you to consider families like mine when you decide on cable choice.

By offering me the ability to choose the channels I want, and to pay only for those channels, you put power back in the hands of the consumer and force the producers of indecent or violent programming to fund their own raunch. These raunchy cable networks have been carried on the backs of American consumers long enough. It is time for this extortion to end, and you have the power to stop it.

BRENDA HOPPER, Jackson