Education Not Censorship
It's August in Washington. Congress is out of session, most people are out of town and not much is happening. Which means that even the most ridiculous stories make the news. Which can be the only explanation behind the Center for Science in the Public Interest's (CSPI's) bizarre news release that the NCAA is "Recruiting Young Audience for Beer Ads." The press release gets even stranger with the subtitle, "Alcohol Advertising Incompatible with Outreach Efforts that Target Kids as Young as 6."

Is CSPI implying that the NCAA is trying to "recruit" six year olds to drink beer? Winston knows that August is the silly season in Washington but this is just nonsense.

The CSPI press release is part of their "Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV." CSPI wants to ban all beer advertising during televised athletic competitions, including the Super Bowl. After all, if beer isn't advertised during sporting events, college students will never know it exists and won't stray from the path of goodness and purity.

The head of CSPI's anti-alcohol project was quoted as saying "What kind of crazy policy would promote beer drinking to young NCAA fans, among others, when drinking problems—violence, unwanted and unprotected sex, alcohol poisoning, school dropouts, and property damage—are the most pressing issues on college campuses?"

Hmmm. Winston figured that declining academic standards, grade inflation, political correctness and often ideologically-driven faculties were the biggest problems on campus.

Winston has to wonder how many of CSPI's staff have even attended a college football or basketball game. More significantly, Winston wonders what on earth does Center for Science in the Public Interest's neo-prohibitionist campaign have to do with science?

If there is a problem with underage drinking, then the answer is education, not censorship which has little to do with learning and even less to do with science.