CBS Stations: Indecency Complaints Invalid
From: MediaWeek, June 13, 2006.
Virtually none of those who complained to the Federal Communications Commission about the teen drama Without A Trace actually saw the episode in question, CBS affiliates said as they asked the agency to rescind its proposed record indecency fine of $3.3 million.
All of the 4,211 e-mailed complaints came from Web sites operated by the Parents Television Council and the American Family Association, the stations said in a filing on Monday [June 12, 2006].
In only two of the emails did those complaining say they had watched the program, and those two apparently refer to a “brief, out-of-context segment†of the episode that was posted on the Parents Television Council’s Web site, the affiliates’ filing said.
“There were no true complainants from actual viewers,†the stations said. To be valid, complaints must come from an actual viewer in the service area of the station at issue, the filing said.
“The e-mails were submitted…because advocacy groups hoping to influence television content generally exhorted them to contact the commission,†the CBS stations said.
…About 8.2 million people saw the Dec. 31, 2004 broadcast, which was a repeat of an earlier airing of the same episode that drew no indecency complaints. [Emphasis added.]Â E-mails about the episode began arriving at the FCC on Jan. 12, the same day the PTC sent an alert to its members, the CBS stations said.
More at the link above.
Reminds me of Parents Television Council page (now defunct?) at
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/main.asp, where you can skip the story, characters, and mise en scene of numerous network TV shows and proceed directly to a tightly-edited edited clip reel of moral outrages. A very Christian viewing plan, I’m sure. “I know obscenity when I see it… and I need to see much, much more of it before I can make up my mind.”
The PTC only claims 1 million members, yet it games the FCC system to make TV content decisions for Americans in 109 million TV households.
1 million out of 109 million plus. If that’s democracy in action, I’d hate to live in a totalitarian dictatorship.
Check out TV Watch, at http://www.televisionwatch.org, for a common sense voice of reason in this debate.
Re: the “obscenity reels” Hell’s Donut House refers us to — in a time when grandmothers are being into oblivion by the likes of the RIAA for allegedly filesharing 80 gabillion MP3s of Brittany Spears songs (sexy grandma, indeed!), one can only puke in wonder that such (ahem) wanton copyright violation goes unpunished. That’s one million bootlegs, after all, n’est ce pas?
(Hmmm…. Maybe someone needs to start a “Christian” [wink] filesharing network…? Complete with posted treatises about how Dead Kennedys, Radiohead, and Serge Gainesbourg embody wholesome American values…)
Falstaff: thanks much for the TV Watch link. I’m pleased (and amused) to note that the organization claims to represent four times as many people as the PTC. Tho, of course, I’m sure the Roves of the world dismiss such numbers as “nothing but a special interest group.” grrrrrr.