PTC Insider: Vol. 11 No. 3 by Parents Television Council

Because Our Children Are Watching®

PTC

I N S I D E R w w w. P a r e n t s T V. o r g

Volume 11 • Number 3 • May/June 2009

Double Victory for Decency at Supreme Court! In a double victory for families, the U.S. Supreme Court has moved to reinforce decency standards on TV! In its April 28 ruling on the case FCC v. Fox, the Court ruled that using the f- and s-words on broadcast TV is indecent and can be fined by the FCC. It also confirmed that the broadcast airwaves belong to

the public, and not to the media moguls and network executives who make billions of dollars a year by using public property for free. And a week later, the Supreme Court ordered a lower court to re-examine its ruling that Janet Jackson’s striptease during the 2004 Super Bowl was not indecent. While the PTC served as a conduit, in fact it was YOU, and others like you, who won this battle! YOUR involvement – your filing of indecency complaints, your letters to congressmen and senators, and your constant moral and financial support — made this double victory possible!

These are major, if qualified, successes. Because the Court did not address the constitutionality of the FCC’s ability to regulate the airwaves, we didn’t get everything we had hoped for. But if we had lost these cases, we would have lost the entire fight for decent entertainment at the same time. The issue of broadcast indecency is now set for many more years of legal wrangling… and the next round of court decisions may well decide once and for all whether the FCC has the power to restrict adult content and whether or not nudity and obscene language can be aired over the broadcast airwaves. But while this victory should be celebrated, we cannot forget: while we have won one battle for our children’s souls, the war goes on… and, with the weight of the law on our side, the PTC will never stop fighting, until children everywhere are safe from the broadcast network’s disgusting “entertainment.” To find out how you can help the PTC in its fight against TV filth, go to www.parentstv.org.

“The Supreme Court decision in FCC v. Fox is a big win for America’s families… Few can deny the blatant coarsening of programming in recent years. The Court’s decision should reassure parents that their children can still be protected from indecent material on the nation’s airwaves.”- FCC Acting Chairman Jonathan Adelstein

The Obscenity Blackout

Burger King Pushes Lewd Content at Kids

New Study: Kids Watching Sex on TV

Worse Than Ever? “Not So Much”

THE OBSCENITY BLACKOUT By L. Brent Bozell III

hen the late Playboy centerfold and tabloid-media celebrity Anna Nicole Smith graced the white marble steps of the Supreme Court in 2006, the network news operations couldn’t get enough of the story. The blonde floozy had married a fabulously wealthy Texas oilman who happened to be 62 years her senior, and now she wanted to collect his estate. It was a serious legal challenge, and a salacious gossip story, and the networks covered it religiously. But when a Supreme Court decision affects the networks directly, and adversely, there’s no coverage. The Supreme Court ruled on the case of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox all suing the federal government for the right to drop F-bombs and S-bombs on young children. The Second Circuit had agreed with the networks that regulation of “fleeting” expletives was “arbitrary and capricious.” There was great interest then. Both ABC and CBS put on full stories to discuss the issues. But on April 28, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court. I bet you didn’t know that, and if you didn’t, it’s because the networks didn’t report it. The verdict emerged once in casual conversation on NBC’s “Today,” in the fourth hour hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. Actor Hugh Jackman described the latest character he was playing as a “prick.” Jackman’s subsequent can-I-say-that routine was an exercise in light comedy, as they all laughed about the Supreme Court decision that no one explained. The Fox News Channel, with 24 hours of news, offered only a tiny brief from Bret Baier on “Special Report” on the verdict: “The Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 in favor of a government policy that threatens broadcasters with fines if even a single curse is uttered on live television. But the justices sent the

FCC guideline back to an appeals court to determine whether it violates the First Amendment.” To his credit, Baier disclosed his own company’s crusade for televised indecency: “The challenge to the rule was mounted by Fox Television, which is a corporate partner of Fox News.” The media could have entertained viewers with snippets of the court’s opinion, especially the dissenters. They are eye-openers. Justice Stephen Breyer bizarrely insisted that the airing of F-bombs is an “important governmental objective.” Breyer wrote regulatory agencies are independent “to secure important governmental objectives, such as the constitutionally related objective of maintaining broadcast regulation that does not bend too readily before the political winds.” Justice Stevens sounded just like the network lobbyists when he lamely claimed that saying F-bombs as an exclamation is not a reference to sex. “As any golfer who has watched his partner shank a short approach knows, it would be absurd to argue the suggestion that the resultant four-letter word uttered on the golf course describes sex or excrement and is therefore indecent.” But if it isn’t an indecent word, why did Justice Stewart feel compelled to label it merely a “four-letter word”? Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent was just aggressively un-factual: “the unscripted fleeting expletives at issue here are neither deliberate nor relentlessly repetitive.” Two of the expletives at issue were uttered by Nicole Richie on a Fox-aired Billboard Awards show as a promotion of Richie’s and Paris Hilton’s new farm-based Fox “reality” show. As award presenters, Hilton warned Richie, “This is a live show. Watch the bad language.” Nicole added, “Why do they even call it ‘The w w w. P a r e n t s T V. o r g ®

Simple Life’? Have you ever tried to get cow s–t out of a Prada purse? It’s not so f—ing simple.” The exchange reeked of scripting. In fact, Richie later confessed there was a script, and she tweaked it to make herself sound less ditzy. (Mission not accomplished.) For Justice Ginsburg to claim this wasn’t “deliberate” is simply untrue. As to the “repetitive” argument, we are to believe that “cow s–t” and “f—ing” is acceptable if uttered once? It also would have been nice for newscasters to pass along Justice Scalia’s cogent brief against the shameless networks: “To predict that complete immunity for fleeting expletives, ardently desired by broadcasters,

Expletives used by Nicole Richie during the Billboard Music Awards were at the center of the recent Supreme Court ruling.

will lead to a substantial increase in fleeting expletives seems to us an exercise in logic rather than clairvoyance.” He said they seek “a standardless regime of unbridled discretion.” That is what the networks want. If ever they achieve their goals, they’ll celebrate to the high heavens, and call it news. But when they lose, as they did last week, mum’s the word. Sign up to receive Brent Bozell’s weekly column at http://www.parentstv.org/lbbcolumns. PTC Insider

TAKE ACTION

Burger King Commercial Pushes Lewd Content at Kids!

ne of the most beloved cartoon characters of recent O years is Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants. SpongeBob is familiar to millions of children – but in April, Nickelodeon partnered with Burger King to use the character in a degrading ad drenched in sexual innuendo. The commercial opens with the image of SpongeBob on a TV. It then shows a woman’s rear with a book inserted under her clothing, thus giving her “square pants”. Burger King’s “King” character then places a carpenter’s square against her rear. “I like Square Butts, and I cannot lie!” blares the commercial’s song, as women in skimpy outfits dance and thrust out their rears, with the camera zooming in on their backsides. Intercut are images of characters from the SpongeBob cartoon. “Swimmin’ through the seaweed tangles/is a butt with sharp right angles!… Now, Burger King wants me to seal the deal – 99 cents get a toy and a Kid’s Meal!” sings the ad’s rap narrator, as the Burger King holds up a Kid’s Meal with a picture of SpongeBob on the bag. “Booty is Booty!” bellows the rapper, as a final image shows the SpongeBob-festooned bag and the slogan, “99¢ BK Kids Meal.” Burger King’s lewd ad has appeared on family-friendly shows like American Idol April 21 at 8 p.m. ET — only 7 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones! The ad also aired at much earlier times on programs with a family audience, like the NCAA championship game on April 6th, and reruns of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on the CMT cable network at 8 p.m. ET. The commercial has even run PTC Insider

on programs obviously aimed at children, such as cable channel TBS’ showing of the animated movie Madagascar at noon on Sunday, April 12. The PTC has reached out to Burger King multiple times, begging them to remove this disgusting commercial from the air – but BK has remained defiant, and has refused to even return our calls! Burger King is no longer airing these commercials – not because they’ve seen the error of their ways, but because they have moved on to a new promotional campaign tied to the release of the new Star Trek movie. But we aren’t letting Burger King off the hook for its long track record of irresponsible advertisements! If you are disgusted by Burger King using a cartoon character to push sex at YOUR kids, you can TAKE ACTION! Write to Burger King and let them know what you think of this ad campaign. And don’t forget that there are plenty of other fast-food chains — like McDonalds, Wendy’s and KFC — who have responded positively to parents’ concerns in the past. Burger King Holdings, Inc. 5505 Blue Lagoon Dr. Miami, FL 33126 United States Phone: 305-378-3000 Chairman and CEO — John W. Chidsey VP Marketing Impact — Brian Gies

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C H A N N E L

S U R F I N G

Countless studies have documented the dire consequences of exposing children to media sex and violence, but that hasn’t stopped the networks from introducing ever-more graphic content during prime-time viewing hours when children are watching television.

Family Guy on Fox Sundays, 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, TV-14 DSL

Southland on NBC Thursday, April 9, 2009; 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, TV-14 DLV

The first episode of this hyper-violent new police program showed a teenaged boy murdered by three gun-toting thugs in a drive-by shooting, and two officers responding to a call of a foul odor emanating from a home — where they discover the corpse of a man who has been eaten by his own dogs. A close-up shot of the man’s hand shows his finger partially eaten, and his face and body also appearing gnawed. But it was bleeped expletives — and lots of them — that served as the new show’s primary innovation. One cop calls out to a drug pusher, “Hey, [bleeped ‘s***’]-bird… We going to see this [bleeped ‘s***’] again,” while another officer’s soon-to-be ex-wife discusses, “those badge bunnies lining up to [bleeped ‘f***’] him.” NBC pushed the bleeped profanity in this program even while the Supreme Court was ruling that profane speech is indecent and can be fined.

But even that disturbing spectacle pales in comparison to the bestiality jokes that filled the May 3 episode of Family Guy. In it, Brian, the family’s talking dog, is dating reality TV star Lauren Conrad. Peter tells Brian that he’ll make the late-night monologues. The scene then cuts to late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon saying, “When asked about their sex life, Brian was quoted, ‘Oh yeah, we just do it me style.’” Next a clip of Craig Ferguson saying, “Have you seen the news about Lauren Conrad and Brian Griffin? You know a lot of these young Hollywood girls carry their little dogs around in their purse, but Lauren carries one in her pants,” is shown. Finally, Jay Leno is shown saying, “Yeah, so Lauren Conrad and Brian Griffin are now a couple. First she gave that dog a bone, and he gave it right back.” That string of tasteless jokes are followed by Peter confessing to Lauren that whenever he watches her show, she gives him “wood,” and Lois catching Quagmire positioned at the table so that Lauren is sitting on his face.

Harper’s Island on CBS Saturdays, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, TV-14 DSLV

The slasher-movie phenomenon moved to the small screen with the premiere of the macabre Harper’s Island. Each week multiple victims die horrific, grisly deaths at the hands of an unknown massmurderer. The premiere episode on April 9th featured one man hacked to pieces by a boat’s propeller blade, and another cut in half, his entrails dangling from his torso. In the April 16th episode, a priest walking through the woods is caught in a snare and beheaded by a machete while dangling upside down from a tree branch. His head is shown bouncing on the ground. The episode ends with woman falling into a pit, where her tormentor soaks her in gasoline and sets her on fire as she screams in agony. But what is truly sickening is CBS’ attitude toward the program: the network’s website features a “Harper’s Island Pick the Victim Game” where contestants can win $1,000 for correctly identifying who will be slaughtered next. To learn more about the PTC’s Broadcast Indecency campaign, go to http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/fcc/main.asp

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PTC Insider

Cable TV content continues to grow more and more disgusting… yet every cable and satellite subscriber is forced to subsidize every cable network’s filth, whether they watch it or not! Here is some of the worst content on cable TV recently:

Rescue Me on FX Tuesday, April 21, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, TV-MA LSV

South Park on Comedy Central Wednesday, April 1, 2009; 10:00 p.m. ET/PT, TV-MA L

South Park continues to mine the depths of animated depravity. In this episode, the elementary-school age characters watch their favorite TV stars Terence and Philip, whose comedy act consists of passing gas. Instead, the program is pre-empted by the “Queef Sisters,” who pass air through their vaginas. The girls are shown undergoing vaginal exams and passing air into their gynecologist’s face. Later, Martha Stewart is shown stuffing confetti into her pixilated vagina to demonstrate how to decorate a “queef.” After Stewart finishes inserting items into her orifice, she “queefs,” shooting confetti and sparkles into the air. The crudely animated Terrence and Philip are shown with their penises exposed while telling their dates they are turned-off by their “queefing” during sex. The episode also contained dialogue like “[Bleeped ‘F***’] you. You don’t [bleeped ‘f***ing’] slap me!”

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Rescue Me’s New York firefighter characters are obsessed with sex; but even this program hit a new low when lead character Tommy learns that his daughter intends to abstain from sex with her boyfriend until they are married. The sex-crazed Tommy rages, “We purposefully raised her as a lapsed Catholic.... so now she should be enjoying herself, on birth control, banging her brains out. But now she wants to reclaim her virginity and wait to have sex until she’s married!” Meeting with his daughter Colleen, Tommy tells her, “If you were gonna buy a car, you would test drive it. I just

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think it’s important you make sure the parts fit.” A flabbergasted Colleen asks, “Are you actually telling me to have sex?” Tommy replies, “I’m saying I don’t think it’s such a bad idea for you to do it. You don’t have to do the whole thing. Do the Clinton thing. You don’t have to go all the way.” No father in his right mind would actually pressure his daughter to have sex outside of marriage; but Rescue Me’s writers have never been worried about being in their right minds.

For more information about the PTC’s Cable Choice campaign, go to www.parentstv.org/cablechoice

Important Research

Kids Watching = Kids Having Sex Earlier Sex on TV As if more evidence were needed that kids are harmed by what

they see on television, a new study by Children’s Hospital in Boston has identified a connection between the early onset of sexual activity among teens and the amount of adult content they were exposed to during childhood. The study found that when children aged 6 to 8 were exposed to sex in television and movies, as teens they were more likely to have sex earlier than those who watched less adult-targeted content. For every one hour the children watched adult TV content, their chances of having sex earlier in adolescence increased by 33 percent. According to the study’s lead author, Dr. Hernan Delgado, MD, fellow in the Division of Adolescent/ Young Adult Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, “Television and movies are among the leading sources of information about sex and relationships for adolescents, [and] our research shows that their sexual attitudes and expectations are influenced much earlier in life.” “Adult entertainment often deals with issues and challenges that adults face, including the complexities of sexual relationships. Children have neither the life experience nor the brain development to fully differentiate between a reality

they are moving toward and a fiction meant solely to entertain,” said study co-author Dr. David Bickham of the Center on Media and Child Health. This study comes on the heels of a RAND Corp. study released last fall that linked viewing of sexual content on TV to teen pregnancy. While the creators of popular media would have us believe teen sex is inevitable, and their

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Children learn from media, and when they watch media with sexual references and innuendos, our research suggests, they are more likely to engage in sexual activity earlier in life. Dr. David Bickham study co-author

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products don’t encourage teens to have sex, recent public health statistics tell a different story. For the first time since 1991, teen birth rates are going up, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and experts cite a more sexualized culture as a significant contributing factor.

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PTC Insider

L. Brent Bozell III Founder Tim Winter President

Worse Than Ever? Supreme Court says, “Not so much.” ithout fail, every PTC donor I meet W asks, in one form or another, the same question: “Why should I support the PTC when it seems television is worse than ever? Isn’t it a lost cause?” I understand this sentiment. It does seem that television just gets worse. And, no matter how much I tout PTC’s successes, the battle can still appear unwinnable. My response to this question is usually, “Well, it may seem to you that television broadcasts more violence and shameless sex scenes now—but try to imagine how much worse it would be without PTC on the case.” Often I continue, “OK, but you read the papers… doesn’t it seem that street crime continues unabated? Now, the last thing we should do is fire all the police, right?” (Fact is, if the crime problem doesn’t improve, you couldalwaysgetanewpolicecommissioner.) This is why the back-to-back Supreme Court decisions against Fox Television Stations and CBS could not have come at a better time. Countless newspaper and online stories cited PTC’s critical role in making sure the FCC stayed on course through the appeals process. Immediately following Janet Jackson’s

Super Bowl “striptease” and Fox Televsion’s “fleeting” profanities, the FCC received hundreds of thousands complaints from PTC members. Then, as the cases slowly wound through the federal appeals process, PTC’s legal, public policy and media experts stayed focused, seeing both cases land on the Supreme Court docket— almost simultaneously. Finally, over the span of seven days, the rulings were announced: PTC’s positions were upheld and affirmed. Of course the battle is not won. Of course television is still a minefield for American families seeking decent entertainment. These two decisions, however, represent unmistakably important milestones in what we all know is a long, arduous campaign. I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s outlook after the RAF barely saved Great Britain in 1940: “This is not the end. Nor is it the beginning of the end. It may, however, be the end of the beginning.” Give now. Give all you can. The PTC is making great strides in our common mission to clean up television.

Mark Barnes Senior Consultant Melissa Henson Director of Communications and Public Education Casey Bohannan Internet Communications Manager Christopher Gildemeister Senior Writer/Editor Michelle Jackson-McCoy, Ph.D. Director of Research Aubree Bowling Senior Entertainment Analyst Greg Rock, Ally Matteodo, Amanda Dudley, Oliver Saria Entertainment Analysts Dan Isett Director of Public Policy Gavin Mc Kiernan National Grassroots Director Kevin Granich Assistant to the Grassroots Director Glen Erickson Director of Corporate Relations LaQuita Marshall Assistant to the Director of Corporate Relations Patrick Salazar Vice President of Development Marty Waddell Senior Development Officer Nancy Meyer Development Officer Tracy Ferrell Development Coordinator Brad Tweten Chief Financial Officer Dean Otsuka Christie Osborn Interns PTC’S HOLLYWOOD HEADQUARTERS 707 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 2075 Los Angeles, CA 90017 (213) 629-9255 The PTC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and education foundation. © 2009 • Parents Television Council www.ParentsTV.org®

—Tim Winter

Meet the PTC’s Board of Directors Robert D. Stuart, Jr. Formerly U.S. Ambassador to Norway from 1984-1989, Robert D. Stuart, Jr. received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 1937. After service in the United States Army in Europe during World War II, he attended Yale Law School where he received his J.D. in 1946. Mr. Stuart had a long career with the Quaker Oats Company, including 15 years as Chief Executive Officer, first as President and later as Chairman of the Board.

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In addition to his career with Quaker Oats, Mr. Stuart sat on the Boards of Directors of the First National Bank of Chicago and United Airlines, among others. Mr. Stuart has also served on the Boards of the Chicago Council of the Boy Scouts of America and the Chicago Urban League, and was appointed to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission by both Presidents Bush and Clinton.

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Join the PTC on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube The PTC has become a part of the social networking community! You can now follow the PTC on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Find other PTC members in your area, chat about PTC-related issues, watch informational videos, and get the latest news as it happens. If you are already a member of one or more of these sites, please add the PTC as a “Friend.”

Facebook — Find out about the PTC’s news and initiatives, and meet and chat with other PTC members! To find us on Facebook, just search for “Parents Television Council Official Page.” Twitter — Keep track of the very latest news of concern to parents in the entertainment industry, and see PTC press releases as they go out. Just search for “ThePTC” (No spaces!) to follow our tweets.

YouTube — View the PTC’s monthly Entertainment Alerts, filled with the latest information of programs you should beware of... and recommendations for wonderful family-friendly entertainment! To join, just go to http://www.youtube.com-/user/parentstv and click the yellow subscribe button.

Join us today!

© 2009 Parents Television Council, All Rights Reserved; PTC, Parents Television Council, Because Our Children are Watching and PTC Insider are trademarks of the Parents Television Council. No one may use these marks without the advance written permission of the Parents Television Council.

Help the PTC Grow! What people see on television does have an influence. And scientific studies have shown that children in particular can be negatively affected by violent or sexual program content. The Parents Television Council demands responsible behavior from the entertainment industry by holding advertisers accountable for the negative programming they sponsor, and encouraging them to support family-friendly entertainment; by advocating consumer Cable Choice, in which viewers only pay for those channels they want to watch; by mobilizing our grassroots members to take action locally; and by urging our government to enforce the broadcast decency laws supported by the American people. But the PTC can only accomplish these goals through the committed support of individuals like you. Please share this newsletter with your friends and family, and encourage your parents and grandparents, friends and colleagues, to join our effort… because our children are watching.

It’s easy to join the PTC. Log on to www.parentstv.org/ptc/joinus/secure.asp. Or mail this form to: Parents Television Council, Attn: Gavin Mc Kiernan, 707 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 2075, Los Angeles, CA 90017 NAME:_________________________________________________________ ADDRESS:______________________________________________________ CITY:______________________________ STATE:_______ ZIP:___________ E-MAIL (for FREE E-Alerts!):______________________________________

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