ONE fundy group responsible for 99.8% of FCC Complaints in 2003

[markbark]

from MediaWeek

Quoth the article:
In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”


What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

So... we have a small cabal of tight-assed fundies deciding what the American public should see on broadcast TV. The REAL irony here is that most of the complaints seem to be generated by arch conservative Rupert Murdoch's FOX channels. The RW feeding frenzy continues.... Stay tuned! ;)

--MAB

[distantearlywarning]

1. I think we all need to start complaining to the FCC too.

Give 'em all a taste of their own medicine. I think I'd like to start with Fox's trashy reality TV shows.

[Lone Pawn]

2. I don't think fighting their free speech

is the best way to preserve free speech.

[Coyul]

5. And why is that?

Doesn't seem to be stopping them from doing the same to us.
We tried our game-plan. It's failed, let's use theirs for awhile!

Or as I like to say....
Let's make them choke on their own medicine!

C..

[bryant69]

8. It depends on what we are fighting for

I mean if we are fighting to simply defeat the Republicans, than that's fine. ANd you are right, they have formed many successful plans around simply beating us and making us look bad.

But if the goal is to preserve our national democracatic values, than this is a valid criticism of this strategy. In other words the test of one's commitment to freedom of speech is not when someone says somethign you agree with with, but when one says something you don't like or even hate.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Lone Pawn]

9. Yes. They don't want free speech.

Say, Germany, 1931.

"Man, those SA thugs are just destroying our democratic government. There's no political debate any more, just thugs killing anyone that dissents."

"You're right! We need to get brownshirts of our own!"

If you want to win elections, go with their plan and become them.
If you want a party that ISN'T neofascist in power, maybe a different plan is in order.

[Johonny]

11. I agree

From the Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Clive Candy: Are you mad? I know what war is!

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: I don't agree. I read your broadcast up to the point where you describe the collapse of France. You commented on Nazi methods, foul fighting, bombing refugees, machine-gunning hospitals, lifeboats, lightships, bailed-out pilots, by saying that you despised them, that you would be ashamed to fight on their side and that you would sooner accept defeat than victory if it could only be won by those methods.

Clive Candy: So I would.

Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff: Clive! If you let yourself be defeated by them, just because you are too fair to hit back the same way they hit at you, there won't be any methods BUT Nazi methods! If you preach the Rules of the Game while they use every foul and filthy trick against you, they will laugh at you! They think you're weak, decadent! And if you lose there won't be a return match next year, perhaps not even for a hundred years!

[MessiahRp]

17. This is why I disagree...

They run the show. The FCC, Congress, Supreme Court, White House and most media companies are Fundie.

So if *we* join the fray by protesting their shows which tends to be at least partly voyeuristic and we attack entertainment shows the FCC will look at it not as retaliation but rather as America united against hollywood and they will go nuts in forcing unbelievable censorship onto us using the shield that this is what we liberals want as well.

All we end up doing is hanging ourselves by giving them the rope.

Rp

[oustemnow]

3. definitely: "I want more nipples on TV!"

actually, I was thinking about this topic not too long ago, and it seemed obvious to me, particularly the Monday Night Football/Desperate Housewives flap, that the 300 complaints or whatever it was could easily be generated by an "action alert" mass e-mail sent by a lone screwball.

I've been thinking lately of protesting religious programming; with similar organization, a big enough counter-protest could be developed so that the would-be censors/theocrats get the message and back off.

[Ian David]

6. BECOME A PREACHER WATCHER!!

Help the Secular Coalition PreacherWatch!
http://www.secular.org/preacher.html


Why this campaign? TV preachers, or "televangelists," are getting a free ride from television providers. All day, every day they receive exclusive access to their own television channels. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy requires that these free access channels be granted to educational programmers. The Secular Coalition for America has filed an FCC complaint against the nation's largest satellite provider, DIRECTV, arguing that televangelists should not be taking up air time intended for distance learning and the arts. To help support our complaint, we are asking you to assist us by collecting data about the shows aired on religious broadcasting channels.

Instructions and rules:

1. Any U.S. resident, using any cable or satellite provider, may participate.

2. Read the form below and familiarize yourself with the questions you'll be answering.

3. Tune into any TV channel dedicated entirely to religious programming and watch at least 30 minutes of any show. Record the station name, the program name, the date, and the start time of the show. You may want to take other notes. If particular statements or claims capture your attention, please record them as accurately as possible along with the speaker's name and the context.

4. Fill out and submit the form below. Your personal information is requested to validate your data, but it will be kept completely confidential. Your e-mail address will be used only for announcements about the PreacherWatch campaign. (To subscribe to our regular mailing list, visit our signup page.)

5. Repeat as many times as you wish. You may submit one data form each time you watch at least 30 minutes of a distinct show. (If you watch all of a one-hour show, you'll submit just one form. But if you watch 30 minutes each of two separate one-hour shows, even if they are two episodes of the same program series, you may submit one form for each 30-minute viewing.)

6. Each person who watches with you may submit a separate data form, as long as the responses are his or her own.

http://www.secular.org/preacher.html

[oustemnow]

12. hah; that's awesome, thanks

the only catch, in my case, is that I don't have cable or satellite.

I think a better case against religious programming might be made in the broadcast arena, anyway. After all, those ARE public airwaves, regulated by Congress, which is supposed to stay the hell out of the promotion or suppression of any religion.

[Ian David]

4. This explains a few things

For example, on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart remarked that the previous night they had accidentally forgotten to "bleep" the word "shit," and NOT A SINGLE PERSON CALLED TO COMPLAIN.


‘Stoned slackers’ watch Jon Stewart?
Bill O’Reilly's viewers are actually less educated than Stewart's
Viewers of Jon Stewart’s show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Nielsen Media Research.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6117542

[thinkingwoman]

10. no, wait...

start with the endless supply of evangelical tv preacher drivel!

Please.

I hate those shows.

OH, OH,...and what about Rush the limpjob?

[distantearlywarning]

15. Perhaps some clarification is in order....

My apologies. I didn't take my earlier post far enough.

I wasn't suggesting that we start censoring everything WE don't like. I am a believer in free speech (even if it's the free speech of the other side).

I was just suggesting that we complain to the FCC. My suspicion is that if they start getting a huge amount of complaints from everybody about everything that it may force them to start looking at complaints in a serious way rather than just fining people based on 3 complaints from some random fundie organization.

I seriously doubt that the FCC would start censoring Rush Limbaugh. But complaining about him might force some actual thought processes to start occurring over there, as opposed to a zombified "...must do what Christian Right says...must do what Christian Right says..." And if they did actually censor him? Well, then I guess maybe some of the sheeple and MSM would start paying attention to this issue and we'd at least see agitation about it. That would be better than the blank passive acceptance that's going on now.

[yardwork]

7. I don't believe for one minute that the White House is unaware of this

I admit it. I've become a tin foil hatter - because of the overwhelming preponderance of evidence that bushco knows exactly what they are doing!

Is it any coincidence that this single activist group got all fired up about a brief shot on CBS that was all but invisible to people watching in real time? (My husband and I were watching this in real time, btw. Janet's flash was so fast, and the cameras cut away so quickly, that we had only the faintest inkling of what had happened. The sun-plate on her nipple was not visible. It took the internet to show those photos to the world.)

Meanwhile, Fox shows stripper shows almost every night of the week, and this same group never complains? The only complaints the feds get are a handful of the usual pissed off people (including some of us here on DU who got mad at Fox at about that time and complained. Fair's fair, Larry).

Anybody here think that this activist group is unknown to the White House? Think their leaders have never been invited to take tea with bushco? Think there's never been any money exchanged between the two?

Ha!

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. Methinks it's time for someone to start digging into the "Parent's

Television Council."

Holier than thou folks usually have more skeletons than most. See Jim and Tammy.

[starroute]

14. So it's our old pal L. Brent Bozell at work

He's one of those names on the right that keeps popping up wherever there's trouble. It was his Cybercast News Service that passed the phony forgery charges against the CBS memoes on to Drudge. I'm not surprised to see it's his organization involved here as well.

[Ian David]

16. Complain the the FCC about EVERYTHING?

How about if each of us resolved to complain to the FCC about SOMETHING, no matter how silly?

"Hi, FCC? I was just watching CBS, and there was a commercial for TOILET PAPER! When I'm watching TV with my children, I don't want to have to hear about people wiping their asses!"

"Hi, FCC? I just saw a show called "Days of Our Lives," and people were kissing WITH THEIR MOUTHS OPEN! And they weren't even supposed to be married!"

"Hi, FCC? I was just watching a documentary on PBS, and they mentioned Evolution, but not Creationism..."

[MessiahRp]

18. PTC went after the WWE vehemently for years

trying to shut them down and censor them. They used every tactic available to them until the WWE sued them and they were forced to publicly apologize to Vince McMahon.

The PTC can be beaten, we just need to organize. Media Matters for America is a great information source but we need to do more to take that activism the next step.

Oh and the ultimate irony is that after all those years of fighting right wing censorship on his programs, Vince McMahon is a Republican shill.

How sad.

Rp

[TWiley]

19. Lets complain about the televangelists.

Talk about obscene broadcasting. I saw one dip-wad telling viewers to send him money, even if it was there grocery money, and he would send them a hankie.

Now that is obscene