From a recent Reuters article:
Turner Broadcasting is scouring more than 1,500 classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons, including old favorites “Tom and Jerry,” “The Flinstones” and “Scooby-Doo,” to edit out scenes that glamorize smoking.
[…]
Akindele said cartoons would only be modified “where smoking could be deemed to be cool or glamorized,” and that scenes where a villain was featured with a cigarette or cigar would not necessarily be cut.
Okay, first of all that’s blasphemous and whoever is responsible for this bullshit should have an oversized anvil dropped on their head. But for a moment, let’s pretend that the actions of cartoon cats and mice actually *did* have some kind of repercussions in the real world then wouldn’t the absolute god-damn *first* thing that you’d want to do would be to cut out the scenes where the “villain” is smoking? Jeesus, read up on some fucking developmental psychology, y’know?