Friday, January 27, 2012

Let's Talk TV Trash

The Parents Television Council is often criticized by "mainstream media" and television stations as being old fuddy-duddy religious naysayers. However, for those of us who still have morals and values, the PTC keeps us informed of what is going on in the TV world. Since around last April, I've been collecting their information. It's time to post some highlights here for those who haven't been keeping track.
-The immensely popular TV show Glee, in its colorful first two seasons, criticized Christianity and Bible beliefs (in the premier episode - they didn’t waste any time), encouraged the young characters to lose their virginity not only to peers but to teachers, celebrated that loss of virginity in happy musical numbers, and allowed its characters, who are supposed to be teens, to be paraded on magazine covers in Playboy-like fashion. The show is still basking in its popularity.
-Last season, there was a new cartoon called Allen Gregory, about a pubescent student who sexually fantasized about his teachers and principal, drank alcohol and used profanity. It was shown during the family hour at 8:30 PM Eastern Time, right after The Simpsons. This show got canceled, but now there’s a cartoon called Unsupervised, where the teens also talk trash and use sexual overtones.
-TIME Magazine reported in October of 2011 that a study from the medical journal Pediatrics confirms profanity and trash language does absolutely increase the aggressiveness of children.        
-This season, the show Modern Family had the first F-word said by a two-year-old child. When encountering questions about their decision to do so, the show's producers defended it by saying they are just reflecting the everyday family.
-And if you expected Two and a Half Men to get a more wholesome look with the debut of Ashton Kutcher replacing Charlie Sheen, then you tuned in to the immediate escalation of filthy talk and nudity within just the first episode. And it's all gone downhill since then.
-Some television networks have lobbied the Supreme Court to remove any obscenity restrictions (like the case FCC v. Fox Television Stations), and many TV shows are adding clauses to their actors’ contracts requiring them to sign that they will perform in the nude.                            
But most of this happens on special-order cable channels, right?
Wrong. The E! Network is part of many basic cable packages. I was flipping stations the other day and saw that episodes of Sex and the City, originally an HBO series, were being rebroadcast on E! at times like 3:00 PM when kids are home from school.
Beside the sexuality, there is documented evidence of profoundly increasing acts of violence and the graphic depiction of blood, gore, beaten bodies, and brutally battered and murdered men and women.
If you want to get this news as it comes out from the Parents Television Council, subscribe to their e-alert newsletter here.
(The writer of this blog has no connection to PTC, and is not receiving any compensation for mentioning the organization or any magazines or TV shows in this article.)

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