Desperate Housewives star Kathryn Joosten is reportedly
calling for a disclaimer to appear before the popular television show “Mad Men”
airs. Why? The characters on Mad Men, a drama set in the 1960s, frequently
smoke cigarettes to be true to the time.
This situation is strangely similar to a
story that broke earlier in the year where text books were censoring the
cigar from Winston Churchill’s mouth. Political correctness was more important
than historic accuracy – cigars and cigarettes are often airbrushed out of
historic photos to avoid “offense.”
The show Mad Men is a drama about a 1960s advertising firm
in New York City. Lighting up a cigarette is a common occurrence on the show - only to stay true to the time period. The show does anything but glorify smoking. In the Mad
Men pilot, the executives, sitting in a smoke-filled office, all started
coughing, cigarettes in hand – an offhanded nod at the dangers of smoking, and
how oblivious some were at the time.
It is a sad commentary on the current state of our culture
when history isn’t even safe from the ever-censoring PC crowd.
