The Negative Power of Blogs

“Snakes on a Plane” is an R-rated movie whose title gives away the plot. Simply, there are, in fact, snakes that get loose on a plane.

However, I saw a short piece last night about the movie and about how it got its rating of “R.” It seems that this movie has a lot of interest in the “blogosphere.” In fact, one blog was so popular that the production company actually endorsed it. Usually movie companies do not like “outside sources” writing about a movie before its release, so this was a major change.

It seems that this blog, plus some others, was upset that the movie was going to get a PG-13 rating. They continually posted messages about how the movie should get an R rating. Amazingly, they won out. The company put back in some deleted scenes and pushed the movie over the edge and “earned” it a rating of “R.”

Also, the company went back in and reshot a scene with a line that the bloggers wanted to see in the movie. That one sentence contains two filthy words. But, it was written into the movie because it’s what the bloggers wanted.

It’s sad, but there are multiplied times more blogs like those than there are like this one. While we try to present the truth, I’m sure we have made mistakes in the past. At least we are trying, though. First with radio, then television and, now, the internet, the world has gotten a hold of a medium before Christians have “caught up.” I’m thankful for Christians who have blogs such as this one. While I don’t know of all of them, there are some that I read regularly, such as Drew Kizer’s blog and Dale Jenkins’ blog. Perhaps you know of others.

This episode just shows us how powerful bloggers can be, and, while this specific incident upsets me, it excites me to think about what can happen when the truth and morality are put out for people to see.