Feel Ideal iz an interezting guy. He's the local artist-filmmaker who cauzed a ruckus by airing a sexually explicit muzic video on the local public access television channel 'Olelo. Now Feel Ideal is under inveztigation by the city prozecutorz office to see if pornography charges should be lodged.
For the record, I think they zhouldn't. But we'll get more into that later.
First, letz talk about Feel Ideal. You know he iz an interezting perzon becauze, for some reazon, he likez to substitute the letter "Z" for "S" in his writingz. I've written the first part of this column in Feel Ideal'z style just so you can see how this can bother z hell out of you. In fact, except for FI's direct quotes, I'm going to stop doing it, becauze it iz driving me nutz.
Whew. There. Basically, Feel Ideal submitted a 47-minute series of music videos to 'Olelo for airing recently. FI pointed out that the video was for adults only. And it was aired at midnight, when most kiddies are in dreamland.
Nevertheless, some viewers saw the explicit sex and complained. The videos have been pulled from the public access lineup and 'Olelo is basically washing its hands of the whole controversy.
And this is where I have a problem. 'Olelo, which is supported by cable subscribers' fees, says it is not its duty to screen independent productions to see if they are suitable for airing. That would be censorship and 'Olelo sees itself as a neutral transmitter of material, kind of like a telephone line.
Nevertheless, when some people began to complain about Feel Ideal's production, 'Olelo handed over Feel Ideal's videos to the police.
THERE were no subpoenas. There apparently was no discussion with Feel Ideal over whether 'Olelo had the right or duty to simply hand the videos over. 'Olelo just did it.
I would think that if 'Olelo truly is just a method of transmission and not a party in these independent productions, it had no business turning over the video to police. The matter would be between the police and Feel Ideal. For instance, if a University of Hawaii journalism student made a film some considered obscene, I doubt that journalism advisers would simply hand over the video for police to decide if it was obscene.
'Olelo's role in this controversy is even more questionable since Feel Ideal feels that he was encouraged to stick his neck out and then 'Olelo took part in the chopping off of his head.
"I waz up front with everyone I dealt with at 'Olelo and they encouraged me along," Feel Ideal said. "I expressed to one staffer there that I didn't want to jeopardize my being able to utilize the 'Olelo channelz over this one film including some sexplicitness ... The first gent I spoke to at 'Olelo told me it would take a court order to get 'Olelo to stop airing my tape, which proved to be a misreprezentation, as complaints from the public iz all it took."
Not only did 'Olelo yank the video but then it handed it over to the fuzz (a correct use of the letter Z). You gotta kind of feel for Feel Ideal.
I admit I haven't seen the film. It could be just a piece of pseudo artistic crappola. But that doesn't matter.
Feel Ideal waded into the murky world of public access television, apparently with encouragement from 'Olelo. When the sex hit the fans, not only did 'Olelo leave Feel Ideal out in the cold, it shoved him out the door and transmitted his film to the police.
Thatz not my idea of an ideal situation. And certainly criminal charges would be silly over such a flaky epizode.
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