Parents Television Council President Tim Winter: “Today we call for greater responsibility by the corporations whose media dollars underwrite some of the most harmful material on broadcast television. These companies have sponsored programs that routinely deliver explicit content.”
The Parents Television Council is calling out Fox Broadcasting for rating an episode of The Following that showed a young woman having her throat brutally and graphically slit open as appropriate for children as young as 14. The episode aired as early as 8 p.m. C/MT and was given a TV-14 (Parents Strongly Cautioned) rating instead of what PTC feels would have been a more appropriate TV-MA (Mature Audience Only) rating.
The watchdog group is urging its members to submit indecency complaints against the Fox comedy for an episode it says featured”an implied depiction of and references to semen, and references to masturbation.”
The Parents Television Council took aim at the television and movie industries on Wednesday, calling for a complete overhaul of the industries’ ratings systems and blasting the industries’ lack of progress in reducing media violence.
Exclusives
The Parents Television Council has released its annual Best and Worst TV Advertisers List, which focuses on companies that sponsor more family-friendly TV programming and those that do not. This year’s list with a “twist” ranks the best and worst advertisers by brand category rather than just by the corporate parent as the PTC’s past lists have done.
The FCC will likely get a mess of complaints about the Nov. 10 episode of Fox’s animated Seth MacFarlane comedy Family Guy after the Parents Television Council encouraged members today to to file broadcast indecency complaints with the commission. PTC says it sprang into action because the episode contained explicit jokes about rape, molestation, sexual exploitation of children — and the “sexualized use of food and perverse ‘internal defrosting’ of frozen hot dogs.”
The watchdog group uses the awards telecast as an opportunity to push for a la carte networks.
The watchdog group thinks Fox’s raunchy new “Animation Domination Hi-Def” is a long way from funny.
The advocacy group claims scenes of exploitation in primetime are more likely to be be played for laughs when they involve underage girls.
The watchdog group says the network’s filing is an attempt to “re-litigate the Supreme Court cases that it lost, rather than addressing the proposal by the FCC to focus only on ‘egregious’ instances of indecency.”
Shows like The Bachelor and Betty White’s Off Their Rockers are blurring the lines of what’s acceptable to show on primetime broadcast TV, argues a new study from the Parents Television Council. Based on findings between Jan. 1 and April 26, the PTC concluded “that blurred or pixilated full nudity is increasingly being shown on primetime broadcast television shows, and that almost 70% of this type of nudity is being shown on TV-PG rated programs.”
Angry about a proposal to relax the FCC’s rules regulating indecent content on broadcast television and radio, the Parents Television Council and Morality in Media are pressing Congress to stop the regulatory agency in its tracks.
The watchdog group’s president, Tim Winter: “We are focusing on #NoIndecencyFCC to let the FCC know that we consider its proposal to limit broadcast indecency complaints extremely troublesome,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “Only pursuing so-called ‘egregious’ complaints from the public about indecent TV or radio content will lead to broadcasters pushing the decency limits even further — including the airing of nudity or harsh profanity when millions of children are in the audience,” he said.
A study by the Parents Television Council of 392 primetime scripted programs on broadcast networks shown during the month following Vice President Joe Biden’s January meeting with entertainment industry executives on the topic revealed that 193 had some incident of violence.
The group says the April 14 episode violated the broadcast decency law and calls on its members to file formal FCC complaints. “Every Fox affiliate that aired this American Dad episode should be held accountable for violating the law,” says the group’s president, Tim Winter.
The Parents Television Council released data on media violence collected from all primetime broadcast programs that aired between Jan. 11 and Feb. 11, following Vice President Joe Biden’s meeting with the industry in January. During the one-month study period, of the 392 shows examined, 193, nearly half, contained violence; 121, almost a third, contained violence and guns.
The debate over violence on TV is heating up, with the Parents Television Council attacking ABC for a “graphic and disturbing” torture scene on the political drama Scandal.
Watch out zombies, the Parents Television Council is coming for you. The PTC is targeting AMC’s The Walking Dead over the drama’s violent content. The PTC is taking issue with The Walking Dead‘s rating, TV-14, claiming the violence depicted is too much for the rating given.
The watchdog group ranks companies based on the content in the television shows “they chose to underwrite with their advertising dollars.” Among the best are Ford, Procter & Gamble, Wendy’s and Wal-Mart. Among the worst are Toyota, Sprint, Target and McDonald’s.
The Parents Television Council has launched a new public service campaign entitled “4 Every Girl” to combat the sexualization of girls by “advocating for a media environment where young girls are […]
NEW YORK — A watchdog group says broadcast television is implying a lot more nudity in primetime than it used to. The Parents Television Council said Monday that its researchers […]
The television watchdog group has urged advertisers to boycott hit TV show America’s Got Talent, saying the addition of shock jock Howard Stern to the panel of judges will “likely result in a sharp increase in explicit content.”
The watchdog organization dubs the freshman comedy a “sexist mixed-bag of hedonism” and is holding advertisers AT&T and Volkswagen accountable.
I Just Want My Pants Back is a relationship comedy with a cast in their 20s. PTC says its going after the show’s sponsors because MTV is targeting 12-year-old children with the show’s risque content.
The watchdog group’s new study, “Reality on MTV: Gender Portrayals on MTV Reality Programming” is based on a content analysis of the most popular primetime cable reality shows among children and teens ages 12 to 17 during the 2011 TV season. “Teen-targeted reality TV is doing little more than ’empowering’ young girls to be overly negative,” said PTC President Tim Winter.
In response to briefs filed with the Supreme Court, the watchdog Parents Television Council chastises ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox for “their resolve to shred any remaining boundaries for decency, paving the way for the harshest profanity and graphic sexual content to be aired in front of kids at any time of day.”
The watchdog group says the network’s airing at 9 p.m. ET of The X Factor contestant Geo Godley dropping his pants and exposing himself represented “a conscious decision by the producers … to intentionally air this content in front of millions of families during hours when they knew full well that children would be watching.”
The watchdog group files in support of FCC authority to fine broadcasters for airing indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The Parents Television Council fired another volley today at one of its favorite targets: adult-themed cartoons that also attract kids. The activist group called for “sweeping reform” of the TV content rating system as a study it released points to what it says are “shocking levels” of sex and drug references in primetime on animation channels that are popular with kids between 12 and 17.
In a letter to NBC affiliates, the Parents Television Council urges the stations not to air the network’s new show this fall, saying, among other things: “Whatever positive spin you may wish to put on the series, it is undeniably a betrayal of the trust you have built over the years with America ’s families — the owners of the broadcast airwaves that you will be using to force this content into the living rooms of every family in your community.”
The watchdog group cites three recent studies to support its claims of flaws in the TV content ratings system and asks that the commission “begin a proceeding on new tools for parents.”
