Terror in the Skies!

From the title of this post, you might think I just watched Flight 93 on TV or I'm getting on a plane next week. I did and I am, but it's actually an article from CT At The Movies about movies on planes. It makes me glad I'll just be flying with Tonja and not an impressionable child.

Imagine this: You and your family—including your wide-eyed preschoolers—are strapped into seats. You're not allowed to get up and move. You're not allowed to leave the room. You're stuck, and you have no choice about what's soon to come your way.
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A screen appears right before your eyes. Before long, you—and your wide-eyed preschoolers—see a man shoot his wife in the face, then drag her body from a pool of blood. Or you see a 12-year-old boy crushed against a fence by a car. Or a teenager zipping up her jeans after having sex. And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. You're literally a captive audience.
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Sounds like something out of a scary movie, doesn't it? Unfortunately, it happens every day—at about 30,000 feet. Commercial airlines regularly show R-rated films and other mature programming, some of it only barely edited from its original form. Sure, you can refuse to wear the headphones, but the images are still there, projected on all those nearby screens for you—and your wide-eyed preschoolers—to see. Cover their eyes? Ha. Ever traveled with a squirrelly, inquisitive 5-year-old? Good luck.
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The New York Times recently reported on this issue in a must-read story that should get any reasonable-thinking person upset—especially when you read such comments as this one from Eric Kleiman, a spokesman for Continental Airlines: "Parents have to be responsible for the actions of their kids—whether they shouldn't look at the screen or look away." What a dumb statement; I'd bet the clueless Kleiman doesn't have any kids.
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Kleiman further put his foot in his mouth by saying that airline entertainment is just keeping pace with what's happening on TV and in movie theaters: "Our approach is consistent with where society is going with this." Uhh, that's Dumb Remark Number Two from Kleiman. We have choices with TV and movies: With the former, we can change the channel, turn it off, or send the kids into another room; and with the latter, we can leave the kids at home, or not to go at all.


Last time I checked, parents didn't have such choices while strapped in their seats in a long narrow tube zooming along at 30,000 feet. I suggest Mr. Kleiman should zip it.
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One couple said they spent two hours on a recent flight trying to distract their 6-year-old son from seeing scenes from Shooter, which depicts multiple gory killings. The sounds of gunshots from nearby headphones alerted the kid to look up at just the "wrong" moments.
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Anecdotal evidence suggests that airlines are showing more and more R-rated and graphic fare. Delta started showing R movies in December, while United and US Airways are showing R movies more frequently than ever. Timothy Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, said, "You don't have to have 'Leave It to Beaver' on, but for Pete's sake, you don't have to have Eva Longoria seducing the high school kid on the dining room table, either."