I Want My Foul TV

More Evidence Proving Cable Industry Campaign to Promote Responsibility is a Sham

LOS ANGELES (August 11, 2005) — Today, the Parents Television Council (PTC), the nation’s most influential advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment, released the results of a six month study of MTV original programming which shows that the cable industry’s $250 million dollar campaign to promote reliance on the V-chip and ratings system is a complete sham.

The PTC’s review of 136 MTV shows, representing more than 70 hours of original programming, revealed expletive-laden programming—both partially-bleeped and non-bleeped profanity—that occurred approximately once every three minutes with no language warnings to parents. If parents wanted to supervise, they would not be helped by the V-chip because the MTV programming monitored in the study did not contain the content indicator for L – language. The V-chip is completely dependent upon the ratings system’s content descriptors to work accurately.

“The cable industry’s campaign to educate parents about the V-chip and ratings system and to demonstrate its corporate ‘responsibility’ is completely worthless. The campaign’s major sponsor, MTV, doesn’t even use content descriptors. Let’s not forget that MTV is owned by Viacom, another major sponsor of several industry-funded groups that claim parents should rely on the V-chip and ratings system. The industry is telling parents to rely on the V-chip to protect children against profanity and sexual content while its biggest campaign sponsor deliberately renders the V-chip useless. Actions speak louder than words,” said L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council.

“This study reveals how irresponsible the cable industry’s solution to indecency—V-chip education—really is. The ratings system is a failure. The V-chip is a failure. Rather than push failed ‘solutions,’ the cable industry needs to take real steps to curb the rampant indecency on basic cable channels. If they don’t, they need to give consumers the option of ordering channels a la carte or they must be held to the same decency standards as broadcast television. There’s no excuse for forcing families to subsidize this kind of vulgarity.

“Parents have no idea of the rapid-fire filth their children are exposed to while watching this kind of raunchy programming. MTV offered no language warnings, giving teens the impression that this kind of explicit, adult language is normal, everyday discourse. None of this onslaught would be caught by your supposedly foolproof V-chip, since MTV is refusing to identify its own filth.”

MTV is watched by 73% of boys and 78% of girls ages 12 to 19, and it is profoundly influential in the lives of its young fans by glamorizing drug and alcohol use, sexual promiscuity and violent behavior.

Of the 136 shows and 71 hours of programming reviewed, the study found 938 bleeped swear words and 542 non-bleeped swear words for a total of 1,480 uses of inappropriate language. There were:
13.21 instances of bleeped language per hour
7.63 instances of non-bleeped language per hour
20.85 instances of inappropriate language per hour
Approximately one instance of foul language every three minutes

MTV routinely re-runs its original programming, creating multiple opportunities for kids to hear foul and adult language. A typical episode of Real World is re-run more than a dozen times with no L TV descriptor.

The PTC study (Jan. 3 through June 19, 2005) examined:

Real World 15:
Philadelphia: (12 episodes @ 6 hours);
Real World 16: Austin: (7 episodes @ 3.5 hours);
Real World vs. Road Rules Battle of the Sexes 2: (5 episodes @ 2.5 hours);
Real World vs. Road Rules: The Inferno: (17 Episodes @ 8.5 hours);
Battle for Ozzfest: (2 episodes @ 1 hour);
Power Girls: (6 episodes @ 3 hours);
The Osbournes: (11 episodes @ 5.5 hours);
My Super Sweet 16: (7 episodes @ 3.5 hours);
Newlyweds: (10 episodes @ 5 hours);
The Ashley Simpson Show: (10 episodes @ 5 hours);
Making the Band 3: (10 episodes @ 5.5 hours);
Trippin’: (10 episodes @ 5 hours);
Meet the Barkers: (11 episodes @ 5.5 hours);
I Want A Famous Face: (10 episodes @ 5 hours);
MTV Awards and Specials: (4 shows @ 4 hours);
That 70’s House: (3 episodes @ 1.5 hours);
Laguna Beach: (1 episode @ 1 hour).