David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. TV has been a nasty, bad, naughty boy
Surprise: The Tribal Elders over at the Parents Television Council still don’t like TV all that much. Given how badly their genteel eyes and ears were battered in the course of a new study (“almost 90% of the 208 television shows reviewed contained objectionable content”), it’s a shock that their viewing habits of this televisual Sodom and Gomorrah hasn’t turned them all into drug-addicted Satan worshippers.
Kudos to:
Fox, “the worst broadcast network overall, noting its 20.78 instances of violent, profane and sexual content each hour;”
ABC, declared the “worst network for sex” (meaning they depict a lot of it, not that its employees aren’t good at getting lucky);
“American Dad,” “worst series overall based on the alarming 52 instances of objectionable content that was packed into each hour of programming;”
“My Name is Earl,” which “contains more than 16 instances of foul language every single hour;”
“The War at Home,” “with 33 sexual depictions or references an hour” (and still, it got cancelled);
MyNetwork, deemed “worst network for foul language” (and yet no one watches it);
and “24,” which “features a whopping 28 occurrences of violence each hour.”
“In 180 hours of original programming,” they grouse, “there were 2,246 instances of objectionable violent, profane and sexual content, or 12.48 instances per television hour.” I clearly am not watching the right shows.
PTC is vague as to what constitutes an offense, though they’re often accused of being a prickly, easily offended bunch (I think I made it up somewhere that they consider images of women not wearing pantsuits and sensible shoes a “sexual depiction or reference”). They’re likewise part of the 13% of the country who hasn’t allowed the notion of “if you don’t like it, don’t watch it” to sink into their heads, folks who champion pap like “The Singing Bee” simply because it’s inoffensive (never mind the fact that it’s idiotic), people who want to influence what you watch regardless of whether you subscribe to their beliefs.
And you really have to wonder about ostensibly sentient adults who would willingly subject themselves to MyNetwork programming, even under the guise of a research study.
Their avowed nemesis, First Amendment champion TV Watch, responded to the study: “Once again, the Parents Television Council, founder of online complaint campaigns, has produced a document that relies on faulty analysis, biased methodology and suspect omissions as part of an ongoing effort to influence regulators and lawmakers to take family viewing decisions out of the hands of parents and give them to the government.”
Actually, given how well the government is running things these days, why not give them a shot? It’ll only be a matter of time before HBO’s “Tell Me You Love Me” is on during the family hour.
Comments
Without violence and sex, what would be the point of watching TV?
Posted by: Suzy Q | September 6, 2007 12:17 PM