Government planting messages in popular shows

I remember about 10 or 15 years ago it was discovered that the government was giving incentives to networks to put messages into shows. Kind of like Nancy Reagan vists Arnold and Willis but more subtle. I seem to remember Dylan shooting someone on Beverly Hills 90210 and then “learning his lesson” about gun control or something like that (my memory is fuzzy on the details.)

Anyway, I’ve seen a couple of things recently that make me wonder if this is still going on. On Desperate Housewives, there was an episode recently where they stated over and over again, mantra-like, that condoms have an 85% success rate. This bullshit sounds like it is straight from government abstinence programs. Also, on an episode of Scrubs, a Jesus statue comes to life and gives a lecture forbidding abortion under any circumstances.

The whole thing just smells too much like Ashcroft and Gonzales’s shit for me to believe it is a coincidence. I hardly watch any tv at all- basicly these two shows, Mythbusters, and the news- so it seems like this must be happening all over the dial. Anyone else notice this on other shows, or know where it is coming from?

If it’s still going on, it’s probably most widespread in the respect of anti-drugs messages.

I’ve never seen 24 but I’ve heard it finds ways to justify torture.

That sucks. I like Scrubs, and wish they wouldn’t do something so lame.

Why can’t we just learn to not stick forks into the toaster or spray paint my bike in a closed garage, like the messages at the end of G.I. Joe? And knowing is half the battle!