Suicide Prevention vs. 'The Office'

In David Bauder's article, "Suicide Prevention Group Protest 'The Office' " he explains why the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention had a major problem with a recent episode of the popular TV show, 'The Office'. In a current Halloween episode of 'The Office', a show that follows a paper company, the office holds a haunted house for little kids. When the kids are being taken around, the always awkward boss Michael Scott comes out pretending to be hung from a rope and saying, "Kids, just remember, suicide is not the answer. It is the easy way out." This upset many suicide prevention foundations, like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention who's executive director, Robert Gebbia said, "...it's impossible to imagine a death due to breast cancer, for example, being used as a joke....entertainers need to be aware of the impact of their work." I think he is right. I'm a big fan of 'The Office' but, what they did was not acceptable. Suicide is an issue many kids and adults are dealing with, whether they have known of a family member or a friend committing suicide or they themselves are considering committing suicide. Any of these people dealing with these problems could have been watching this episode which could have set them off to commit suicide or bring up the awful past they could have had. Suicide is not something to be taken lightly. It's a serious issue that is very hard to deal with and for some people, a simple show such as 'The Office' could be a positive light in a usually dark situation for them and for the show to joke about some thing like that is rude and insensitive. I'm not saying that TV shows can't put controversial issues into an episode for comic relief into a tense situation, but showing it to that level can really do damage to a viewers feelings. Several other shows have done similar things to this. In many crime shows, the characters talk about rape or the programs shows murder scenes. Other programs show bullying or smoking or drinking. These shows can be viewed by young kids or teenagers which gives them ideas that this is okay to do.

From this article, I have several questions. How can we prevent entertainment programs from saying the wrong things about serious issues? What limits should there be? How far is too far? How does this affect viewers? How does it affect people who look up to these entertainers?
I think that the writers of these shows should really look at what they have written from another person's perspective and think about how each controversial joke could affect a sensitive person. I don't think there should be many limits as far as what the shows can and can't say, but they should be more sensitive and take a second look at their work from a different view point. I think that going to far would be taking a serious issue and making it a complete joke, because all people can access this, and they never know who it could offend. I think this affects many of the viewers who have actually dealt with these issues and it could take them back to the state of mind they were in at that time or remind of those feelings or issues. I think it definitely affects the people, mostly kids, who look up to these entertainers. If the episode shows something like a rape case in a crime show or a murder scene, bullying, or even a suicide joke makes them think that it is okay to do or to joke about because their role models did.