Posted on 01/26/2005 8:17:37 AM PST by Sensei Ern
American TV watchdogs have rejected a raft of complaints about everything from Friends characters discussing a phallic-shaped cake to mention of homosexual kissing on Will And Grace.
Clean-up campaigners the Parents Television Council filed 36 complaints about incidents they thought were dragging down standards.
They also included an episode of The Simpsons in which striking students carried banners saying "Don't cut off my pianissimo" and the scene in the Austin Powers movie where a naked Mike Myers had his genitals hidden by cunningly-placed objects.
The Federal Communications Association rejected all the complaints, ruling: “None of the segments were patently offensive under contemporary community standards and thus not indecent. The commission also found that the material was not profane, in context.”
Tim Winter, executive director of the Parents Television Council said: "In three recent indecency rulings, [the FCC] has sanctioned the following content during the so-called family hour: a high school teacher refers to one of his students as ‘a big dick’; criminals hire a prostitute to have sex with a horse; and jokes about pedophilia and Michael Jackson’s penis. By what community standard is it not patently offensive during the family hour to broadcast these things?”
The complaints are part of a concerted effort to clean up TV following the incident at the Superbowl where Janet Jackson flashed a breast, leading to record fines for broadcaster CBS.
If the PTC wasn't responsible for greater than 99% of all FCC complaints I might consider the complaints worth looking at.
The PTC's censorship crusade is indecent.
I heartily agree with these students. It's very annoying when the audience applauds before the last faint notes of a performance die away. "The Simpsons" is one of the few worthwhile progams left on TV. They could take the rest and deep-six them.
Fortunately, for whatever reason my kids don't seem to have any urge to watch these shows. TV used to be addictive to kids, but it's reached such a low level of stupidity that it's lost even that quality.
The best solution is not censorship but to turn off the boob tube except as a DVD monitor.
There is a simple technological solution to this problem.
It's called the "ON/OFF" Switch. Set it to the "Off" position, and the TV cannot POSSIBLY say or show anything anyone might consider offensive.
BTW, there is no Right to Not Be Offended. PTC, as well as members of the Politically Correct Left, seem to think there is. . .
I think they should keep it up. However, the FCC has no intention of doing anything. Maybe a new chairman will actually listen to what people are saying. And please don't bother with the lame, "if it offends you, turn if off" crap.
"If the PTC wasn't responsible for greater than 99% of all FCC complaints I might consider the complaints worth looking at."
Amen. They are the organization who cries "wolf" everytime the leaves rustle.
And if the content on TV was so offensive, wouldn't it stand to reason that more than a measly .2% of all FCC complaints would come from somewhere other than the PTC?
The PTC is responsible for 99.8% of all FCC complaints, and the complaints they do file are nothing more than boilerplates sent out to their members for submission.
The problem with this statement is that for the past forty years, television has been instrumental is setting (or perhaps more accurately, reducing) those standards.
Appealing to "contemporary community standards" is always a little slippery. As Bruce Cockburn says in his song, "The trouble with normal is, it always gets worse."
As if there is a link between the two.
By the way, teen preganancy rates are going down in the U.S.
Why not? Too easy of a solution?
Compared to when? Certainly not to before there was television. I assume you don't have children.
If you can find stats and/or research proving a link between teen pregnancy rates & television viewing please post them for all of us to see.
I won't hold my breath.
http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/teen_stats.html
Shows abortions as well.
Agreed. And so parents should take all necessary steps to ensure their kids don't have access to that entertainment. And keep the Govt out of it.
The public airwaves are not owned by entertainment conglomerates, they are owned by the public.
"Owned by the public". Yeah, right.
In any case, the "public" votes on this issue by way of their viewing habits and in case you haven't noticed, "Desperate Housewives" is a top five show.
There is a great difference between censorship and good taste and responsibility.
Yes. The difference is whether the Govt gets involved. I am for small Govt & do not believe they have a role in regulating content. It's a pity you are for big Govt.
You must be confused. I asked for stats that prove your point, not mine.
And no matter what stats say, the issue of teen pregnancy has way too many factors & variables involved to boil it down to "TV watching = increased teen pregnancy" as you shamlessly claim.
I would never say the cause of teen pregnancy was TV. The cause of pregnancy is sex.
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