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Lone Activist Group Submits 99.8% of FCC Complaints
andywebz writes "Mediaweek is reporting that complaints to the FCC are rising. Powell spoke before congress, detailing that the complaints are up from 14,000 in 2002, to nearly 240,000 in 2003. There were only 350 complaints during 2000 and 2001. Powell failed to mention however that 99.8% of those complaints came from PTC (Parents Television Council). The article does mention he may have been unaware of this fact. Jonathan Rintels (president of the Center for Creative Voices in Media) commented, 'It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio.'"
Credit for this story ultimately should go to blogger Jeff Jarvis. Jarvis is a longtime journalist, former TV critic, and currently head of the internet division of a major U.S. media company. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the FCC's data and followed it up with a searing analysis.
Jarvis is a professional, but anyone can do this. Dig in and report. Many hands make for light work, and all that.
I am all for showing sex and violence on TV but not when it is deviously smuggled inside shows billed "family entertainment".
And.. to those who say "change the channel", I have tried that as well. The sad fact is that there are hardly any alternatives because almost EVERY show is doing it. There are not many intellectually stimulating shows to watch - unless you want to watch PBS all the time.
I, for one, am glad that there is atleast someone holding the purveyors of dreck accountable - even if they go overboard sometimes.
They have:
Information about Broadcast Obscenity/Indecency Laws:
The Courts have said that obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment and cannot be broadcast at any time. To be considered obscene, material must meet a 3-prong test:
1. An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient (arousing lustful feelings) interest;
2. The material must depict or describe, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable law; and
3. The material, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Indecency is defined as language or material that, in context, describes or depicts, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community broadcast standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities. Indecent programming contains patently offensive sexual or excretory references that do not rise to the level of obscenity. As such, the courts have held that indecent material is protected by the First Amendment and cannot be banned entirely. It may, however, be restricted in order to avoid its broadcast during times of the day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience. As such, broadcasts -- both on television and radio -- that fit within the indecency definition and that are aired between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. are subject to indecency enforcement action.
The Oprah Winfrey Show Transcript
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Clip One
Oprah: Lets talk about that secret language Michelle.
Michelle: Yes
Oprah: I didn't know any of this
Michelle: I have yea, I have gotten a whole new vocabulary let me tell ya
Oprah: I did not know any of this
Michelle: Salad tossing, cucumbers, lettuce tomatoes ok
Oprah: ok so so what is a salad toss?
Michelle: ok a tossed salad is, get ready hold on to your underwear for this one, oral anal sex, So oral sex with the anus is what that would be.
Clip Two
Michelle: a rainbow party is an oral sex party it's a gathering where oral sex is performed and rainbow comes from all of the girls put on lipstick and each one puts her mouth around the penis of the gentleman or gentlemen who are there to receive favors and makes a mark um in a different place on the penis hence the term rainbow
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Careful now. WWE didn't kick their ass in court, the PTC and WWE settled out of court. There's a difference.
I think everyone should use the http://www.parentstv.org/ptc/fcc/fcccomplaint2.asp Complaint Form on the PTC website to send positive fead back about all of the shows in the PTC worst 10 list to the FCC. If everyone on SlashDot did this we might be able to get the PTC some bad press (it would be bad press as far as they are concerned).
"Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." Linus Torvalds
So long as you don't send a letter to the editor:
Please keep in mind that we will not post letters that contain vulgar language and/or non-constructive comments.
Read: If we're going to censor things we disagree with, dammit, we're going all the way!
The guy's a political appointee (appointed by Clinton, initially, too). I'd say that he's there because somebody who likes him has political pull. That makes him perfectly qualified for this position, since that's the only qualification for these political appointee jobs.
He's taking an interest, and he's trying to get the bureaucracy to do what he thinks is right. That kind of tilting at windmills takes courage. It's more than a lot of political appointees do. M. Powell has been taking the technocrats' advice at least part of the time; in particular, I'm thinking about some of the bandwidth auctions, which were highly recommended by some economists. I'd say that he's not just mindlessly following a party line, neither the line of the Democrats who first put him there, nor the line of the Republicans who put him in nominal charge.
If you don't like what he's doing, well, that doesn't make him wrong, just as your approval wouldn't make him right.
See what I've been reading.
Not only are they Christians, but they don't know/care what Christ had to say on the matter(see eg. Matt 6:5-6.)
"We have got to make Stan understand the importance of voting, because he'll definitely vote for our guy." - South Park
The NY Times just recently published an article about red America's viewing habits. Surprisingly, the States that voted conservative in the last election are the same States where the highest viewing population for "CSI" and "Desperate Housewives" arise. You should read the article before NY Times starts charging for it. What does that say about America's viewing habits? "Do what I say, not what I do?"
Lastly, all this attention on the PTC should not divert attention away from the thoughtless actions of the American Family Association, who according to an NPR report the night of Veteran's Day, were poised with thousands of people ready to lodge complaints to the FCC about stations that were going to air "Saving Private Ryan" in commemoration of Veteran's Day.
Linux at home
It looses a lot of your intended impact due to using phrases such as "by effectively spamming the crap out of the FCC."
..." The 'until you discover...' bit sound very amaturish and would be better worded in terms like : "However, if the statistics are investigated further it comes to light that 99.8% of all complaints..."
That will get the letter put in the 'loony left' bucket quicker than anything.
Also, using the phrasing of "Until you discover that 99.8% of all complaints
Quickly rushing out a poorly worded email does nothing for the cause I'm afraid.
Damn right. We need more people willing to stand up and say "it's my responsibility." More power to you!