Parents Television and Media Council
The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by conservative Christian activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers to be responsible, family-friendly content across all media platforms, and for advertisers to be held accountable for the content of television programs that they sponsor. The PTMC officially describes itself as a non-partisan organization, although the group has also been described as partisan and socially conservative.
This article is about the nonprofit group that rates TV shows. For the TV guidelines and list of advisories, see TV Parental Guidelines.Founded
1995
"Bringing back responsibility and family values to the entertainment industry"
- Alexandria, Virginia and Los Angeles, California
United States
Media attention, direct-appeal campaigns
12,000 (disputed)[1]
L. Brent Bozell III (founder), Tim Winter (current president), advisory board members include Billy Ray Cyrus, C. Delores Tucker, Sam Brownback and Steve Allen
The PTMC produces reviews, research reports, and online newsletters that highlight television programs and other entertainment products (such as music videos and video games) based on their suitability for family viewing. The PTMC has advocated for cable television networks to be subject to the same decency rules as broadcast television, and for television providers to allow subscribers to purchase channels on an individual basis. The group has also been critical of the TV Parental Guidelines system, often deeming the ratings given by broadcasters to be inaccurate in comparison to their own assessments of a program's content.
It has mounted pressure campaigns against the producers, broadcasters, and sponsors of programming that they perceive to be indecent or harmful to children (such as those containing undue sexual content, profane language, and violence); these campaigns typically include the organized mass mailing of form letters and emails to advertising sponsors of unapproved programs, organized mass filing of complaints via the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website complaint form, and direct threats of long, potentially costly FCC license challenges to local network affiliates planning to broadcast what the council considers harmful network programming.[2]
Throughout its existence, the Parents Television and Media Council has been accused of promoting censorship.[3] In 2004, the FCC reported that the group was the primary source of most content complaints received by the commission.[1]
Advisory board[edit]
The PTC also has an advisory board consisting of politicians and entertainers working to assist the council in their goal of protecting children against profanity and violence in the media. Notable members of the advisory board have included singer Pat Boone, former football player Mel Renfro, writer-producer Coleman Luck, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus, comedian and actor Tim Conway of CBS's The Carol Burnett Show, former U.S. Senator from Kansas and 2008 presidential candidate Sam Brownback, film critic Michael Medved, star of 1980s soap opera Dallas Susan Howard, and ION Television producer Gary Johnson.[18] In addition, the PTC has established numerous local chapters for most American media markets.[19] Notable former advisory board members include - both of whom are now deceased - comedian Steve Allen, original host of NBC's The Tonight Show, and C. Delores Tucker, participant in the Civil Rights Movement and activist against gangsta rap music; Allen is now given the title of National Honorary Chairman-Emeritus.[20] Bahçeşehir University associate professor Christian Christiansen questioned the backgrounds of certain PTC advisory board members as not consistent with their stance on morality.[21]
Publications[edit]
Columns and reports[edit]
The website of the PTC features reports on what the group says is harmful content on television and regular writings from its staff. Their research is done with the support of their Entertainment Tracking System, an archive of prime-time television programming that they claim is the largest in the world.[22] Such publications include:
Activism[edit]
Broadcast indecency[edit]
In 2003, the PTC unsuccessfully campaigned for the FCC to take action against the NBC television network in response to the use of the word "fucking" by Bono, lead singer for the rock band U2, during the network's January 2003 telecast of the Golden Globe Awards. Among an audience of nearly 20 million, the FCC received only 234 complaints, 217 of which came from the PTC.[54] In October 2003, the FCC decided not to fine NBC because Bono's obscenity was ruled as fleeting and not describing sexual or excretory functions, the FCC's standard for fining a network for indecency.[55] After the PTC filed an Application for Review to the FCC, in March 2004 the FCC decided that the word was indecent by law but still decided not to fine NBC; however, the ruling was to serve as a warning to networks that there would be a "zero tolerance" policy towards obscene language willfully used during the daytime.[56] However, the PTC's complaints about profanity used by presenter Nicole Richie in the December 10, 2003 broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards led the FCC to conclude that the language violated decency law.[57]
The PTC began attracting more attention after it filed around 65,000[58] complaints to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, in which one of performer Janet Jackson's nipple shielded breasts, was exposed for 9/16ths of a second. FCC chairman Michael Powell stated that the number of indecency complaints to the FCC had risen from 350 in the years 2000 and 2001, to 14,000 in 2002 and 240,000 in 2003.[59] It was also found that the PTC had generated most of the indecency complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission.[59][60][61] In July 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit voided the fine.[62]
Popular music[edit]
In April 2008, PTC released The Rap on Rap, a study covering hip-hop and R&B music videos rotated on programs 106 & Park and Rap City, both shown on BET, and Sucker Free on MTV. PTC urged advertisers to withdraw sponsorship of those programs, whose videos PTC stated targeted children and teenagers "with adult content ... once every 38 seconds".[143][144] PTC also warned radio stations about playing the Britney Spears song "If U Seek Amy" over concerns it contained an audible use of an obscenity.[145] In response to the music video to Miley Cyrus' song "Who Owns My Heart", the PTC stated that it felt it was "unfortunate that she would participate in such a sexualized video like this one"; ironically, Miley Cyrus' father Billy Ray Cyrus sat on the PTC Advisory Board at the time.[1]
In May 2011, the PTC took issue with Rihanna's music video for her song "Man Down." In the video Rihanna portrays a woman who resorts to killing the man who had previously raped her. They claimed the video promoted gun crime and murder, while the pop star said she wanted to be a voice to victims. After the video became the most viewed YouTube video that week, she sarcastically used Twitter to thank the PTC in helping her make the video such a success.[146]