Chapter 10

That evening we sat down to watch the six o'clock news in the clubhouse. With us were the whole Fernandez tribe, including Manuel, a year younger than Alicia and a lawyer in King City and Linda Carruthers and her two kids. We were especially interested in seeing how the national broadcasting companies would deal with our little protest march, if they would. I have a preference for ABS' news policy; of the three main broadcasters, they are the most even-handed in dealing with everyday events. Other families would be watching NCN and Foster television, as well as the Cable News Channel.

As the clock over the bar flipped over to 6:00, ABS' trademark chime announced the news and Andrea Price, ABS' King City anchorwoman came on-screen. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Our top story today is out of Manatee Bay. Before we get to it, however, I must make an announcement. ABS has long maintained a policy of truth in broadcasting. In the past, this has caused some concerns as we are required, as well, to respect FCC guidelines as to what was acceptable to show on prime-time television. These guidelines do not always meet with everyone's approval as they are a lot more tolerant toward showing violence than they are about showing nudity."

"In the past, whenever we showed a news-clip that included nudity, we would, as per FCC guidelines, electronically blur those portions of the anatomy that the FCC found offensive. I say again, it was the FCC that found such sequences offensive. We were obliged to comply with their policy, no matter what we ourselves would wish."

"In Manatee Bay, for the past seven years, since the State added mandatory swimming courses to the school curriculum, all the schools of the county have been clothes-free. Contrary to the term clothing-optional that is prevalent in quite a few nudist resorts, clothes-free means exactly that ... all the students, the teachers and the staff are nude while in school. Furthermore, in support of the Manatee Bay School Board policy, Manatee Bay's City Council has voted in a by-law that permits total nudity anywhere within the county for all persons under eighteen and top-freedom for all adults."

"Recently, however, Manatee Bay has seen the influx of several families of Arabic origin, followers of the Salafi tradition prevalent in Saudi Arabia. Over the last few weeks, there have been several incidents between the youth of the Salafi group and Manatee Bay's youth over the different cultural values of the two cultures."

"Today, ALL of Manatee Bay's over 400 students staged a protest march against the imposition of Salafi cultural values. Since the core issue in these conflicts was that the Salafi youth objected to the nudity of the high school students, which as I've mentioned just now, is perfectly legal in that county, the students on that march were all nude in protest of that attitude."

"In the past, in order to comply with the FCC, we would have blurred the images you are about to see. However, in this case, we were formally forbidden to do so by the organisers of the rally. We were faced with the choice of following FCC guidelines and being sued or not showing you the news; we chose the option of respecting our duties towards you, the viewer, and to present the news as it happened. We go now to Susan Bach for on-the spot commentary of today's rally at Manatee Bay."

What followed was an extensive video clip of the day's march. For most of the panoramic shots, the camera was sufficiently far away that details could not be seen anyway, while the close up shots were mostly of heads and shoulders although some female breasts were in evidence. It was the same for Consuela's interview; except for one positioning shot of her sitting on the picnic table, the whole video was shot above the waist. When Crystal came into camera range to whisper in Consuela's ear, all the teens in the room shouted "Hey, Crystal ... Way to go!"

The broadcaster left Consuela's warning in the clip, in its entirety. When Manuel saw that, he snorted in derision. "Oh, I like that ... What a bunch of hypocrites. They're using Conchita's warning as an excuse to show skin on prime-time and putting the blame on her for placing them in a moral dilemma... 'Do we follow the FCC and risk getting sued or ignore the FCC and possibly lose our license.' Yeah, right ... I'm sure they must have thought about it a whole thirty seconds."

I laughed. "Manolito, you've become just as cynical as your father."

"Well, you know the old saying... 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree'."