As I mentioned back on March 27 and May 5, I would start writing more about the Parents Television Council, an organization that has been frequently lobbying to push for "decent" entertainment. I was inspired to do so by Brent McKee, author of a column "Who Does the PTC Hate This Week?" on his blog I Am a Child of Television. I can relate to McKee's skeptical views over the PTC in the organization's mission to make pretty much "a homogenization of television so that everything is suitable for...children" in his words. Well, for starters, here's a list of campaigns, scare tactics, smear campaigns, free speech, and whatnot in which the PTC has had a large stake and received much controversy and criticism:
- If you're a fan of WWE Wrestling, at least since the dawn of the third millennium, then you probably remember the PTC's smear campaign against the WWE (back then known as World Wrestling Federation, WWF for short before a similarly-acronymed group World Wildlife Fund sued). PTC blamed WWF/E's flagship show SmackDown on the deaths of four children. Consequently, WWE sued PTC over claims that: (1) PTC's use of Smackdown clips on its website constituted copyright infringement and PTC's anti-Smackdown campaign constituted utter misinformation and defamation. Thus, in July 2002, PTC and then-president L. Brent Bozell III agreed to pay $3.5 million to WWE in an out-of-court settlement. Since 1995, PTC's mission had always been to "promote and restore responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry", but to be honest I don't see what's so decent about lying and guilt-by-association.
- In December 2004, Mediaweek magazine reported that the overwhelming majority of FCC complaints filed in 2003 were from the PTC. Ditto from January to October 2004 (excluding the controversial Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show with Janet Jackson's chest spot, for which PTC has claimed responsibility for only around 65,000 complaints; there were nearly 540,000 complaints from the general American TV-viewing public - coincidentially resulting in a $550,000 fine for CBS-TV) And now let's take into consideration that PTC has been the primarily complaint-filer to the FCC, and let's see the subsequent home fronts that PTC has conquered in Television War I:
--March 2006: A record $3.63 million fine for CBS over a December 31, 2004 rerun of the crime/mystery drama Without a Trace episode "Our Sons and Daughters" due to a scene depicting teenagers engaged in a sexual orgy. CBS network execs defended the scene as within the context of "an important and socially relevant storyline warning parents to exercise greater supervision of their teenage children." But the BIGGEST catch here was: The episode originally aired November 2003; PTC complained about it but CBS paid the FCC about $3 million to dismiss the complaints. That broadcast was shown at 10:00 PM (Eastern/Pacific) but 9PM in the Central/Mountain zones. Ditto for the December 2004 rerun that got CBS busted. For more about this absurdity I shall refer you to the aforementioned Child of Television blog.
--Just three months later, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, which would kick up FCC fines for allegedly indecent programming from just $27,500 to $325,000 for any smutty shows aired starting summer 2006.
--January 2008: ABC-TV is fined $1.43 million over a February 2003 episode of its former crime drama NYPD Blue, a show not unfamiliar with controversy. The episode in question, "Nude Awakening", featured a scene with the exposed buttocks of character Connie McDowell (played by actress Charlotte Ross). As I write this blog, the network is appealing its fine. I've never actually taken the time to sit down and watch a whole episode of Blue, and I am afraid that I have to sort of justify the FCC's fine in this case unless a fan of the series can have a good cup of coffee with me and justify why a shot of a woman's butt uncensored. However, I do take CBS' word about the "social responsibility" over its teen orgy scene - daytime talk shows like the ones hosted by Oprah Winfrey and Maury Povich have tackled similar "edgy" topics, and the FCC has ruled that the Oprah episode exploring the topic isn't indecent. And as I speak, ABC-TV is appealing the fine. Because I don't know much about NYPD Blue, I'll just stop right here and wait for someone to convince me more about how Blue's use of naked butt cracks and the "B.S." expletive are supposed to reflect the life of an ordinary NYPD officer. But similar to the Without a Trace case, this episode was shown at the dreaded "10/9 central" timeslot in which a network's "Middle American" stations would be more guilty of carrying "indecent, 10PM-style" material. Why can't americans just watch shows that aren't sports at the same local time every time zone so that silly junk like this doesn't have to happen???
--Recent, still-pending FCC complaints: Las Vegas (NBC, 11/30/2007 over dicussions about women's nipples; 2/15/2008 over partial female nudity - coincidentially in the series finale); Good Morning America (ABC, 1/15/2008, live uncensored "f_cking" by guest interviewee Diane Keaton, in Central/Eastern TZ) Today (NBC, , live uncensored use of "c_nt" by guest interviewee Jane Fonda, ditto C/E TZ)
- It can also be predicted that PTC will hop on the tanks and fire its complaint ammo over the upcoming CBS drama Swingtown, a series about 1970s Middle America surrounded by free love and drug use. Melissa Henson, PTC Communications/Public Education Director, appeared on Christian Broadcasting Network today to discuss the show and how it's going to corrupt the oh-so-precious morality of our nation. Now, I do understand how Henson and the CBN hosts are concerned about the tawdry content of the show, which I will be recording Thursday night and watching the weekend afterwards (due to my SAT Subject Tests on Saturday the 7th). But nowhere in Henson's interview was the show's Thursday "Third Hour" (technically 10PM Eastern/Pacific; 9PM Central/Mountain/wherever) timeslot. Nor was it affirmed that the creators intended to show how society was really like in the 1970s...because the real world has a "liberal bias" right? Henson also persuaded CBN viewers to boycott the show and request their local affiliates to pre-empt the premiere broadcast. A similar dispute occured over CBS airing the Showtime premium cable show Dexter earlier this year due to the show allegedly glorifying central serial killer character Dexter Morgan. As this is dealing with a show that's seen nowhere beyond illegal bootlegging as of the day I'm writing this, I have little to say except for the "truthiness" factor, and this is yet another time where PTC is demanding a more "Little House on the Prarie"-type idiot box.
-And after all this, what does PTC really call itself? I'm serious...Nonpartisan
Now my loyally TV-viewing friends, this all also comes upon what could be perhaps the final nail in the coffin over Television War I: The future Supreme Court case FCC v. Fox regarding the use of "f_ck" by Cher in the 2002 Billboard Music Awards and "cowsh_t" and "f_cking" by Nicole Richie in the 2003 BMA's - both broadcast live in the Eastern Half of the Nation during primetime on Fox. Although the FCC has affirmed that both programs were indecent, it has yet to pursue a fine for the network. It's rather sad how all this hullaballoo is going on with just one minority activist group pretending to serve the "general American TV-viewing public", whose TV tastes are far more diverse than the tastes of whoever's heading the PTC...determined to protect children in any way, shape, or form (even if it'd sound silly). My question is: Why would young children be allowed to watch the Billboard Music Awards in the first place? I, having been into popular music at least since the first year of this millennium, know how many sexual and vulgar themes are often present in most Billboard-charting music - especially with most rap, dance-pop, and some hard rock music. I mean, have you noticed how so many chart-topping albums have a "Parental Advisory Explicit Content" label these days? Thus, I personally wouldn't find it unusual for bad words to pop up (as happened back in 02/03). But just face it. Profane words that would break your precious heart...ahh you know what I'm talkin about...are part of the English language. If PTC is so concerned about covering kids' ears from profanity, where were they when ABC showed Saving Private Ryan in primetime back in November 2004? Why don't I know about PTC/any similar group protesting high schools that assign The Catcher in the Rye as required reading in English classes? I read that book back in 10th grade, and I'd say that'd be a PTC member's worst nightmare - the end of childhood innocence, and those evil, forever-cursing-you-to-the-underworld English words known as Profanity!
Still, just because smutty TV exists doesn't mean the end of the world yet. If you can't stand the gory, violent CSI, sexually-charged Two and a Half Men, or any of the other "primetime junk", you can change the channel to PBS. Or year-round, the networks have a UPS truck full of family-friendly reality/game shows like Extreme Makeover Home Edition. All these shows are regularly on the Nielsen Top 20, as are the aforementioned types of crime dramas/silly sitcoms. Then, you have PBS, "independent" TV stations, cable TV (I mean the clean channels like Food Network or Nickelodeon I guess), or just turn it off altogether! The only reason why controversy even exists in the first place over TV (that many of us enjoy watching) is because of hard-right special-interest groups wishing to push their opinions on all of us. But no, that does not mean that NBC should start showing hardcore porn at 8 in the evening. All we TV viewers are asking for is just for the FCC to allow the networks to program shows that will attract enough of an audience to sustain, not to program shows appealing to the "special interest". The end.
03 June 2008
30 May 2008
SAT's, The Eagles, and my Secretarial Run
So now I've finished my AP exams, and received my SAT score - my first attempt I got a 1990, particularly due to a poor score on the Critical Reading section and the Writing section Essay. I plan on retaking the SAT in October after revamping my Reading skills over this summer. Other upcoming exams I have include finals for Calculus and Spanish next week, and projects for the AP classes US history and English literature.
Anyway, in other matters, a web feature I read regularly is the "VH1 Rock Clock", a listing of certain events in music history that happened on a certain day over the 20th century. For May 31 (that's tomorrow), in 1975, "The Eagles release their single "One of These Nights."".
After I read that, I went to Windows Media Player and began playing several Eagles songs, beginning with "Nights". I've enjoyed listening to the Eagles since discovering their song "Hotel California" in 2005 (from a commercial for local soft rock station 96.5 KOIT) Their music is a pretty darn good combination of classic rock and country, but at least it ain't as cheesy as most of the garbage you can hear locally on 95.3 or 95.7...sorry I'm not like a 40-year-old white guy living in the Midwest, so I definitely ain't in the country music target audience. My favorite Eagles songs include "Hotel California", "New Kid in Town", "Take it Easy", "Lying Eyes", and "The Long Run". I credit local rock station 104.5/97.7 KFOG for introducing me to "Long Run".
It's amazing how the legacy of the Eagles has carried on over the years. According to William Ruhlmann of All Music Guide: the Eagles albums Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California (both released 1976) "ranked among the ten best-selling albums ever, according to the certifications of the Record Industry Association of America." And in October 2007 their ninth album Long Road Out of Eden was released! I don't recall listening to any songs from that album (maybe I did from 107.7 a while back), but I feel eager in listening to it, as the Eagles don't require as much energy as Metallica do in playing music and thus won't sound like retirement-home people trying to hard to sound "hard". (If any Metallica fans remember that silly 2003 effort of theirs, St. Anger, then you'll know what I mean.)
And finally, I'd like to thank all EVHS students, ESPECIALLY those of the Class of 2009, for supporting me in my run for Class of 2009 secretary. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for praising my great speeches at the Wednesday lunchtime Q&A and Thursday morning announcements. You and me can all agree that I can win or at least gather a lot of votes. If I do win I promise to perform my assigned job with all due respect and good attitude and to respond to as many of the students' requests as I can. Once again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and wish me good luck in all my future endeavors!
Until next time,
Andrew
Anyway, in other matters, a web feature I read regularly is the "VH1 Rock Clock", a listing of certain events in music history that happened on a certain day over the 20th century. For May 31 (that's tomorrow), in 1975, "The Eagles release their single "One of These Nights."".
After I read that, I went to Windows Media Player and began playing several Eagles songs, beginning with "Nights". I've enjoyed listening to the Eagles since discovering their song "Hotel California" in 2005 (from a commercial for local soft rock station 96.5 KOIT) Their music is a pretty darn good combination of classic rock and country, but at least it ain't as cheesy as most of the garbage you can hear locally on 95.3 or 95.7...sorry I'm not like a 40-year-old white guy living in the Midwest, so I definitely ain't in the country music target audience. My favorite Eagles songs include "Hotel California", "New Kid in Town", "Take it Easy", "Lying Eyes", and "The Long Run". I credit local rock station 104.5/97.7 KFOG for introducing me to "Long Run".
It's amazing how the legacy of the Eagles has carried on over the years. According to William Ruhlmann of All Music Guide: the Eagles albums Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California (both released 1976) "ranked among the ten best-selling albums ever, according to the certifications of the Record Industry Association of America." And in October 2007 their ninth album Long Road Out of Eden was released! I don't recall listening to any songs from that album (maybe I did from 107.7 a while back), but I feel eager in listening to it, as the Eagles don't require as much energy as Metallica do in playing music and thus won't sound like retirement-home people trying to hard to sound "hard". (If any Metallica fans remember that silly 2003 effort of theirs, St. Anger, then you'll know what I mean.)
And finally, I'd like to thank all EVHS students, ESPECIALLY those of the Class of 2009, for supporting me in my run for Class of 2009 secretary. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for praising my great speeches at the Wednesday lunchtime Q&A and Thursday morning announcements. You and me can all agree that I can win or at least gather a lot of votes. If I do win I promise to perform my assigned job with all due respect and good attitude and to respond to as many of the students' requests as I can. Once again, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU and wish me good luck in all my future endeavors!
Until next time,
Andrew
05 May 2008
The early bird gets the worm
Just a few minutes ago I was registering for the SAT Subject Tests in Spanish and Biology for the June 7 administrations, whose deadline was tomorrow (May 6). Unfortunately I learned a pretty damn bitter lesson from registering at the last minute: although my first choice was my home schooL (evergreen valley) apparantly all its testing spaces were full so I got bumped over to my 2nd choice, Andrew Hill, which is a bit further away from where I live. Lesson learned: Plan your SAT/ACT registrations WELL in advance to guarantee that you get your local/closer school's test site!
In the meantime, sometime after the AP Exams are over I'll be writing about the Parents Television Council again, specifically on their latest report (some say would be mind-rotting garbage) The Rap on Rap, a content analysis on rap music videos shown during daytime hours on the cable networks BET and MTV. Now, I need to go back to studying American History and Calculus.
In the meantime, sometime after the AP Exams are over I'll be writing about the Parents Television Council again, specifically on their latest report (some say would be mind-rotting garbage) The Rap on Rap, a content analysis on rap music videos shown during daytime hours on the cable networks BET and MTV. Now, I need to go back to studying American History and Calculus.
27 March 2008
Me, the PTC, and CBS's [whitewashed] "Dexter"
So it's been 3 weeks since the last blog here huh? Well, i've been spending these 3 weeks forgetting about my blog in favor of improving my studies and doing other things. Maybe I spend too much time editing Wikipedia and other stuff that I forget about this. But oh well. I read other blogs too, so it's a bit hard for me to forget about mine...someone asked about it and then I quickly realised (on a rough draft Notepad TXT file on my computer) that I owe y'all an entry about the Parents Television Council and my experiences watching Dexter...the whitewashed version on the CBS network due to the fact I have never had cable in my whole darn life. Here, where I live, CBS (KPIX, channel 5) airs Dexter every sunday night at 10:00 PM local time (Pacific time by the way)
Oh, and regarding the PTC, one concern I have is their vendetta against CBS for showing an [edited] version of the Showtime cable channel show Dexter. It hasn't been the first time a show has been presented from premium cable to broadcast. For example, [censored] Sex and the City reruns are shown on local TV station KRON 4 weeknights at 11:30PM and Sundays 10PM...due to FCC regulations over indecency (which can be shown only 10PM-6AM to avoid fines). CBS has shown Showtime's Brotherhood once on CBS edited to TV-14-LV (the original is TV-MA on Showtime). Ditto for Dexter, according to CBS.com, it was edited down from TV-MA to TV-14-LV. That the PTC dislikes:
"Despite repeated public promises for responsible edits and accurate ratings guidelines for parents, CBS elected to assign this graphic program with an adult storyline a TV-14 rating, meaning that CBS decided that the show would be appropriate for children as young as 14 years of age. The show was supposedly edited for broadcast television, although the show featured the main character, Dexter, shown with a victim taped to a medical-style table, cutting the man with a scalpel and then approaching his head with an electric saw. A few other lowlights include Dexter shown covered in blood, lining up severed body parts on a table, and Dexter driving his car while the severed head of a woman hits the car and rolls into the street.
"“Despite countless public calls for restraint and corporate responsibility, CBS broke its own promise to the public that it would employ careful editing and accurate ratings guidelines for Dexter. Depictions of violence were barely altered from the Showtime Network original format. If, as CBS repeatedly promised, the program was targeted only to mature audiences, why wouldn’t they assign a mature audience rating of TV-MA? What could possibly lead them to determine that a show about a pathological serial killer ‘hero’ could be appropriate for 14-year old children? The only reason is corporate greed. CBS knows full well that advertisers would flee in droves if the program’s rating accurately reflected its content,” said PTC President Tim Winter."
All I can say is that based on my viewing experience of TV-14-V programs on the broadcast nets, Dexter is just a bit more violent than if not as violent as any other TV-14-V show you'll see on TV, like CSI on CBS, 24 on Fox, or Heroes on NBC. Yes, there were gruesome scenes with the buthcer knives and needles and all, but I've seen that type of violence on Heroes, which was shown even EARLIER than was Dexter (Mondays, 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific; 8:00 central on NBC, before the darn writers strike). So where in the world was PTC when that occured? What about the older Sunday 10PM CBS program Shark? According to the PTC's own Christopher Gildemeister, author of the "TV Trends" column:
"...the September 23rd season premiere of CBS’ legal drama Shark showed more 'realistic' violence. In the episode, police find the severed head of a mobster on a chess table in a park. Blood oozes from the frayed edges of the man's severed neck, and a chess piece has been shoved in the gangster’s mouth.
Additionally, according to PTC's own Family Guide to Prime Time Television:
"Shark airs at 10:00 p.m. and has adult themes of murder and the circumstances surrounding crimes....In the premiere episode, S[h]ark handled a case involving a pop singer who video-taped sex with a friend and then murdered him when he did not want to make the tape public...Violence began as milder, but as the series progressed, it has been much more graphic. This season, depictions included a stabbing and a strangulation murder."
And compare that to PTC's just-released review of Dexter, regarding the violence there:
"As is expected, a series about a serial killer is extremely violent and grotesque. Dexter is depicted capturing his victims, tying them up, cutting their faces with scalpels, and in one incident, chopping a man up with a meat cleaver and stacking up dismembered body parts while covered in blood. Also, Dexter examines crime scenes that included two different dismembered bodies, huge amounts of blood spatter, and later he witnesses a killer tossing a severed head out of a moving vehicle. There is a killer Dexter and the police are tracking that leaves dismembered body parts all over Miami and these are shown in close up in every episode. The violence is very graphic and disturbing."
Although I don't watch Shark, my crime-TV diet including CSI, 24, Law & Order, and The Shield, I pretty much have the impression now that Shark is pretty much on the violence border near Dexter. So why hasn't PTC taken too much action against Shark then, given that both shows air at pretty much the same Sunday 10/9c timeslot?? Could it just be that Dexter is a product of a premium cable network (Showtime network actually)? Could it be that "Shark" is too critically acclaimed? Could it be that PTC members are secretly "Shark" fans? What? Hey hey, Bill Frost of Salt Lake City Weekly had this to say in response to PTC's apparant "Double standard": "[c]hildren — habitual fans of Shark at 9 p.m. [Mountain Time] Sundays, apparently — might be scarred by Dexter." (Should be noted that Salt Lake City, Utah is in the Mountain Time Zone of North America)
What's fascinating about the PTC's complaints is that they freely assert that TV-14 ain't strong enough. Wow. Seriously, I really question how many American parents are still concerned over their 14-year-old child's innocence. In 10th grade, I read JD Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye tackling that same damn theme...the book got a fair bit of hot water over that when it first came out 'round the 50s. And regarding PTC, the "not appropriate for 14-year-olds" part has been applied not just to Dexter, but also to CSI: Miami (I haven't seen the episode in question so I can't really comment on that...but chances are it had the "S" and "V" descripters or whatever so the parents/viewers would've been extra warned about the content)
And then in October 2006 there was the PTC's campaign against NBC's long-running medical drama ER and the short-lived MyNetworkTV soap opera Desire - both being rated a flat TV-14 - over the use of profanities "tits" (ER) and "shit" (Desire), words they claim are inappropriate for 14-year-olds. To paraphrase Brent McKee, author of the blog I Am a Child of Television: "The mythical 14-year old child whose mind is irrevocably corrupted by this show is the main focus" of the PTC's anti-Dex campaign.
You got that right Brent. (Not Bozell of the PTC, but the author of the blog.) Even more hilarious, still PTC thinks that a TV-14 with added descriptors is still not strong enough. Take the episode of Without a Trace that caused CBS to be fined nearly $3 million back in March 2006. It's a pretty messy story. The episode originally aired 11/6/2003, 10PM (East/Pacific)/9PM (Central/Mtn), rated TV-14-LSV. PTC files a truckload of complaints against it, Viacom (then-owners of CBS network) pays the FCC a few $100,000's to dismiss their complaints. The episode reruns on CBS on 12/31/2004 (again the 10/9c timeslot and TV-14-LSV). About two weeks later into the new year of 2005, (actually on 1/12/2005), the PTC (and another "pro-family" group American Family Association) files an estimated 4,000 complaints in total. 3/15/2006 comes along, FCC fines CBS near $3 million, the biggest fine against a TV network to date...all by organizations whose complaints' legitimacy is at best questionable.
So let's get this straight. First off, PTC complains when it feels that "TV-14" isn't strong enough rating for a particular show (think CBS's whitewashed Dexter). And then when a TV-14 show has three of the four available descriptors to warn parents about objectionable content, PTC ignores the rating and complains about the show anyway since the show is "live bait" for a network to get fined, content ratings be damned. So now we all have a Parents Television Council with all sorts of bias and cherry-picking in its reporting. It is very important to approach the PTC's reports with an open mind, given their poor reputation for all its errors and bias, and of course their FCC complaint machines...recruiting "meatpuppets" to make it seem as though more and more Americans than ever are complaining about TV sleaze. In the future expect me to obliterate whatever quote-mining, fact selection, spin, distortion, fog, snow, haze, whatever the PTC spews out of its noise machine.
Oh, and regarding the PTC, one concern I have is their vendetta against CBS for showing an [edited] version of the Showtime cable channel show Dexter. It hasn't been the first time a show has been presented from premium cable to broadcast. For example, [censored] Sex and the City reruns are shown on local TV station KRON 4 weeknights at 11:30PM and Sundays 10PM...due to FCC regulations over indecency (which can be shown only 10PM-6AM to avoid fines). CBS has shown Showtime's Brotherhood once on CBS edited to TV-14-LV (the original is TV-MA on Showtime). Ditto for Dexter, according to CBS.com, it was edited down from TV-MA to TV-14-LV. That the PTC dislikes:
"Despite repeated public promises for responsible edits and accurate ratings guidelines for parents, CBS elected to assign this graphic program with an adult storyline a TV-14 rating, meaning that CBS decided that the show would be appropriate for children as young as 14 years of age. The show was supposedly edited for broadcast television, although the show featured the main character, Dexter, shown with a victim taped to a medical-style table, cutting the man with a scalpel and then approaching his head with an electric saw. A few other lowlights include Dexter shown covered in blood, lining up severed body parts on a table, and Dexter driving his car while the severed head of a woman hits the car and rolls into the street.
"“Despite countless public calls for restraint and corporate responsibility, CBS broke its own promise to the public that it would employ careful editing and accurate ratings guidelines for Dexter. Depictions of violence were barely altered from the Showtime Network original format. If, as CBS repeatedly promised, the program was targeted only to mature audiences, why wouldn’t they assign a mature audience rating of TV-MA? What could possibly lead them to determine that a show about a pathological serial killer ‘hero’ could be appropriate for 14-year old children? The only reason is corporate greed. CBS knows full well that advertisers would flee in droves if the program’s rating accurately reflected its content,” said PTC President Tim Winter."
All I can say is that based on my viewing experience of TV-14-V programs on the broadcast nets, Dexter is just a bit more violent than if not as violent as any other TV-14-V show you'll see on TV, like CSI on CBS, 24 on Fox, or Heroes on NBC. Yes, there were gruesome scenes with the buthcer knives and needles and all, but I've seen that type of violence on Heroes, which was shown even EARLIER than was Dexter (Mondays, 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific; 8:00 central on NBC, before the darn writers strike). So where in the world was PTC when that occured? What about the older Sunday 10PM CBS program Shark? According to the PTC's own Christopher Gildemeister, author of the "TV Trends" column:
"...the September 23rd season premiere of CBS’ legal drama Shark showed more 'realistic' violence. In the episode, police find the severed head of a mobster on a chess table in a park. Blood oozes from the frayed edges of the man's severed neck, and a chess piece has been shoved in the gangster’s mouth.
Additionally, according to PTC's own Family Guide to Prime Time Television:
"Shark airs at 10:00 p.m. and has adult themes of murder and the circumstances surrounding crimes....In the premiere episode, S[h]ark handled a case involving a pop singer who video-taped sex with a friend and then murdered him when he did not want to make the tape public...Violence began as milder, but as the series progressed, it has been much more graphic. This season, depictions included a stabbing and a strangulation murder."
And compare that to PTC's just-released review of Dexter, regarding the violence there:
"As is expected, a series about a serial killer is extremely violent and grotesque. Dexter is depicted capturing his victims, tying them up, cutting their faces with scalpels, and in one incident, chopping a man up with a meat cleaver and stacking up dismembered body parts while covered in blood. Also, Dexter examines crime scenes that included two different dismembered bodies, huge amounts of blood spatter, and later he witnesses a killer tossing a severed head out of a moving vehicle. There is a killer Dexter and the police are tracking that leaves dismembered body parts all over Miami and these are shown in close up in every episode. The violence is very graphic and disturbing."
Although I don't watch Shark, my crime-TV diet including CSI, 24, Law & Order, and The Shield, I pretty much have the impression now that Shark is pretty much on the violence border near Dexter. So why hasn't PTC taken too much action against Shark then, given that both shows air at pretty much the same Sunday 10/9c timeslot?? Could it just be that Dexter is a product of a premium cable network (Showtime network actually)? Could it be that "Shark" is too critically acclaimed? Could it be that PTC members are secretly "Shark" fans? What? Hey hey, Bill Frost of Salt Lake City Weekly had this to say in response to PTC's apparant "Double standard": "[c]hildren — habitual fans of Shark at 9 p.m. [Mountain Time] Sundays, apparently — might be scarred by Dexter." (Should be noted that Salt Lake City, Utah is in the Mountain Time Zone of North America)
What's fascinating about the PTC's complaints is that they freely assert that TV-14 ain't strong enough. Wow. Seriously, I really question how many American parents are still concerned over their 14-year-old child's innocence. In 10th grade, I read JD Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye tackling that same damn theme...the book got a fair bit of hot water over that when it first came out 'round the 50s. And regarding PTC, the "not appropriate for 14-year-olds" part has been applied not just to Dexter, but also to CSI: Miami (I haven't seen the episode in question so I can't really comment on that...but chances are it had the "S" and "V" descripters or whatever so the parents/viewers would've been extra warned about the content)
And then in October 2006 there was the PTC's campaign against NBC's long-running medical drama ER and the short-lived MyNetworkTV soap opera Desire - both being rated a flat TV-14 - over the use of profanities "tits" (ER) and "shit" (Desire), words they claim are inappropriate for 14-year-olds. To paraphrase Brent McKee, author of the blog I Am a Child of Television: "The mythical 14-year old child whose mind is irrevocably corrupted by this show is the main focus" of the PTC's anti-Dex campaign.
You got that right Brent. (Not Bozell of the PTC, but the author of the blog.) Even more hilarious, still PTC thinks that a TV-14 with added descriptors is still not strong enough. Take the episode of Without a Trace that caused CBS to be fined nearly $3 million back in March 2006. It's a pretty messy story. The episode originally aired 11/6/2003, 10PM (East/Pacific)/9PM (Central/Mtn), rated TV-14-LSV. PTC files a truckload of complaints against it, Viacom (then-owners of CBS network) pays the FCC a few $100,000's to dismiss their complaints. The episode reruns on CBS on 12/31/2004 (again the 10/9c timeslot and TV-14-LSV). About two weeks later into the new year of 2005, (actually on 1/12/2005), the PTC (and another "pro-family" group American Family Association) files an estimated 4,000 complaints in total. 3/15/2006 comes along, FCC fines CBS near $3 million, the biggest fine against a TV network to date...all by organizations whose complaints' legitimacy is at best questionable.
So let's get this straight. First off, PTC complains when it feels that "TV-14" isn't strong enough rating for a particular show (think CBS's whitewashed Dexter). And then when a TV-14 show has three of the four available descriptors to warn parents about objectionable content, PTC ignores the rating and complains about the show anyway since the show is "live bait" for a network to get fined, content ratings be damned. So now we all have a Parents Television Council with all sorts of bias and cherry-picking in its reporting. It is very important to approach the PTC's reports with an open mind, given their poor reputation for all its errors and bias, and of course their FCC complaint machines...recruiting "meatpuppets" to make it seem as though more and more Americans than ever are complaining about TV sleaze. In the future expect me to obliterate whatever quote-mining, fact selection, spin, distortion, fog, snow, haze, whatever the PTC spews out of its noise machine.
23 February 2008
When I was gone...
So this is pretty much my first blog I've written since August 2007. New year of 2008 has come, with only 10 more months of the wicked presidency of George W. Bush and the predicted entry of good old Barack Obama, the first semester passing me by with sand and fog, the writer's strike coming and going, the death of Benazir Bhutto, the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympics in my beloved Beijing, China (I have extended family there), the sequel to Virginia Tech over at Northern Illinois University, the winter storms in China, and loads and loads of other things I could write a lot of blogs a day about that I don't want to include here.
In the past week weird things have come up on my cell. For some odd reasons I've been getting odd calls on my cell phone. I went on google to look 'em up. One of 'em was from a Vietnamese woman living in Milpitas who dialed the wrong number I guess.
But things get worse. I've been getting calls from places like Phoenix, AZ and Newton, MA about "car warranty expiration" when hell, I don't even own a car! Google this. Found a site 800Notes.com that led me to this. Look up suspicious phone numbers there.
The reason why I haven't been able to blog? Due to the fact that I take 3 AP classes...as I've repeatedly mentioned ( I guess in my humble memory) Calculus AB, English Literature, and US History. So far I think I am dong better in them, after a pretty unstable first semester. Lately I've been getting tutoring for Calc AB after struggling with Applications of Differentiation, and since then my grades have improved. I will take the SAT test in May 2007, a couple weeks or so before the AP exams. I have also gotten tutoring in that class, specifically for the writing section and speculatively in the critical reading. I just took a practice SAT today and got 2050. Some genius I am! :) My goal is at least 2200, or if I kick a lot of ass, then as far as 2400 I can go. Well all I can say for myself is to be more careful with the problems and make sure I check every single damn word they say.
I know that the SAT has been criticized a lot due to it's "anti-intellectual" attitude and lack of scope within the brain...that's why some American liberal arts colleges have dropped it in favor of bigger and better things (a.k.a. Your Brain). As far as the Essays go, Massachusetts Instituete of Tech writing diretor Les Perelman has claimed that common "cheating" techniques to get a high scores on the essays like 10 or 12 (the scale is 12) include making your essays uber LONG. Plus, Perelman has a valid point that the writing in the SAT essay pretty much defeats "good" writing you do in AP English classes or wherever that makes you polish it like a shiny new car. But I defend the SAT essay, while I do agree that it ain't as great as, say your AP Lit analyitical essay, at least it tests your ability to make a good argument, through good evidence and structure and proof. I think I'll be able to do well on it, since my tutor recently commented that my writing has greatly improved since the first time we met back in January 2008.
In coming months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, microseconds, and specks of dust, here's a list of topics I will be writing about:
- Politics as I hear from theliberally biased news media...from both the Democratic/Republican sides of course...or at least i HOPE i stay balanced.
- The upcoming agenda from moronic self-appointed "morality" groups like the Parents Television Council and American Family Association to destroy the first amendment in the name of fundamental 1960s family values that many of us can think beyond. You'll be seeing in the coming times how cranky and foolish these hypocrites are, with the EVIDENCE of course (I promise not to spin)
- Of course, my own life, including my dreams, favorite TV, books, movies, friends, school, and the whatnot.
Now excuse me when I go back to watching PBS' presentation of the BBC's adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"...
In the past week weird things have come up on my cell. For some odd reasons I've been getting odd calls on my cell phone. I went on google to look 'em up. One of 'em was from a Vietnamese woman living in Milpitas who dialed the wrong number I guess.
But things get worse. I've been getting calls from places like Phoenix, AZ and Newton, MA about "car warranty expiration" when hell, I don't even own a car! Google this. Found a site 800Notes.com that led me to this. Look up suspicious phone numbers there.
The reason why I haven't been able to blog? Due to the fact that I take 3 AP classes...as I've repeatedly mentioned ( I guess in my humble memory) Calculus AB, English Literature, and US History. So far I think I am dong better in them, after a pretty unstable first semester. Lately I've been getting tutoring for Calc AB after struggling with Applications of Differentiation, and since then my grades have improved. I will take the SAT test in May 2007, a couple weeks or so before the AP exams. I have also gotten tutoring in that class, specifically for the writing section and speculatively in the critical reading. I just took a practice SAT today and got 2050. Some genius I am! :) My goal is at least 2200, or if I kick a lot of ass, then as far as 2400 I can go. Well all I can say for myself is to be more careful with the problems and make sure I check every single damn word they say.
I know that the SAT has been criticized a lot due to it's "anti-intellectual" attitude and lack of scope within the brain...that's why some American liberal arts colleges have dropped it in favor of bigger and better things (a.k.a. Your Brain). As far as the Essays go, Massachusetts Instituete of Tech writing diretor Les Perelman has claimed that common "cheating" techniques to get a high scores on the essays like 10 or 12 (the scale is 12) include making your essays uber LONG. Plus, Perelman has a valid point that the writing in the SAT essay pretty much defeats "good" writing you do in AP English classes or wherever that makes you polish it like a shiny new car. But I defend the SAT essay, while I do agree that it ain't as great as, say your AP Lit analyitical essay, at least it tests your ability to make a good argument, through good evidence and structure and proof. I think I'll be able to do well on it, since my tutor recently commented that my writing has greatly improved since the first time we met back in January 2008.
In coming months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, microseconds, and specks of dust, here's a list of topics I will be writing about:
- Politics as I hear from the
- The upcoming agenda from moronic self-appointed "morality" groups like the Parents Television Council and American Family Association to destroy the first amendment in the name of fundamental 1960s family values that many of us can think beyond. You'll be seeing in the coming times how cranky and foolish these hypocrites are, with the EVIDENCE of course (I promise not to spin)
- Of course, my own life, including my dreams, favorite TV, books, movies, friends, school, and the whatnot.
Now excuse me when I go back to watching PBS' presentation of the BBC's adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice"...
16 August 2007
A sad sign of Corporate America gone wrong
Regarding the "Rock the Bells" hip-hop concert tour with a sold-out San Francisco show this saturday the 18th:
"Sunday - August 19th - Sacramento, CA - Sleep Train Amphitheatre - Cancelled
Refunds available at original point of purchase.
The Rock the Bells Festival date scheduled for Sunday, August 19 at the Sleep Train Pavilion near Sacramento, CA has unfortunately been cancelled due to slow ticket sales. Fans will be able to receive full refunds at their original point of purchase. The tour will be in the Northern California area on Saturday, August 18 for a sojavascript:void(0)
Publish Postld out show at McCovey’s Cove in San Francisco.
Festival founder Chang Weisberg from promoter Guerilla Union adds, 'I am disappointed that we weren't able to sell enough tickets to bring the full Rock The Bells experience to Sacramento this year. Unfortunately our San Francisco show was too popular. We know that over 4,000 people are coming from the Sacramento area based on our online ticket sales info. We kinda hurt ourselves with our own ambition to play Sacramento this year. We hope to bring Rock The Bells back to this area very soon.'"
:(
Well, I feel sorry for all the fans of good hip-hop residing in the Central Valley who have to drive another 90 minutes just to get to cold San Francisco. The Bay Area is big enough that there's actually "nonconformist" hip-hop fans like me who can look beyond the corporate monsters of Wild 94.9, BET, and MTV to listen to underrated hip-hop MC's who don't get much media exposure. Well, you have exceptions like Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, but we can't totally rely on big corporate media to give us the new stuff from talented MC's like Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Redman, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, etc. We have to suffer all the terrible derivative mindless pop-rap from G-Unot, Ugly Ricky, DTP, etc on the corporate media. The cancellation of the Rock the Bells show in Sacramento due to poor sales shows just how corporate America with its media consolidation can affect "smaller" markets like Sacramento and silence the voices of new and upcoming artists.
Media consolidation has been a big issue among the Creative Voices of America since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 relaxed rules on media consolidation. Nowadays, we have only a few big media corporations giving us what we hear on radio, responsible for influencing music sales, so let's have a look at how the radio is owned, shall we??
Clear Channel Communications owns these radio stations locally, in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- KSJO-FM "92.3 La Preciosa" (Mexican oldies)
- KYLD-FM "Wild 94.9" (hip-hop)
- KUFX "98.5 KFOX" (classic rock)
- KIOI 101.3 (pop)
- KDON 102.5 (hip-hop)
- KKSF 103.7 (jazz)
- KCNL 104.9 (alternative rock)
- KMEL 106.1 (hip-hop, with a more "open-to-the-underground" playlist than 94.9)
- KNEW-AM 910 (conservative talk)
- KKGN-AM 960 (liberal talk)
Empire broadcasting owns these local stations:
- KRTY 95.3 (country)
- KLIV-AM 1590 (news)
CBS Corporation:
- KITS 105.3 "Live 105" (alternative rock, but their playlist is more open to indie acts than does the over-corporate KCNL)
- KCBS-AM 740 (news)
Cumulus broadcasting:
- KFFG 97.7 (San Jose)/KFOG 104.5 (San Francisco) - adult album alternative
- KSAN-FM "107.7 the Bone" (hard rock)
- KNBR-AM 680/KTCT-AM 1050 (both stations run under "KNBR" banner, sports format)
The Walt Disney Company:
- KSFO-AM "Hot Talk 560" (conservative talk)
- KGO-AM "News Talk 810" (news & talk)
- KMKY-AM 1310 "Radio Disney" (children's)
Bonneville:
- KOIT 96.5 (light pop)
- KDFC 102.1 (classical)
Now, these are perhaps the most well-known stations in the area! The rest of the stations are owned by smaller companies, NPR, or local colleges. (Don't even get me started on "pirate" radio!) Luckily, because San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose is a big, profitable market, while there is room for the "conformist" music fans who get their music & information off the radio, there's also room for the "nonconformist" listeners who get their music off Live 105 or indie outlets or their news off the "alternative press". I fit somewhere between these two categories: While I get not all of my music and news off the radio, I do not consider myself 100% "anti-mainstream". Thus, the only music stations I really listen to are 104.5, 105.3, 106.1, and 107.7, as most bands I feel have true talent do not get much media exposure. (Look at my Last.fm and you'll see. Luckily, the programmers at local college radio stations 90.1 (KZSU, Stanford), 90.5 (KSJS, San Jose State), and 103.3 (KSCU, Santa Clara U.), are brave enough to play "indie" rap and rock that seldom get played on my fave corporate stations.
This story is easy enough to be viable in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Unfortunately, in the smaller Sacramento market, even a higher percentage of well-known radio stations are corporatized! Now, here's the logic: smaller market + larger corporate media ownership = less room for "unknown" talent to be heard. According to Wikipedia's list of Sacramento-area stations, Entercom, Clear Channel, CBS, Entravision, etc. have stakes on numerous FM stations, leaving less room for "indie" radio like KDEE 97.7 or KXJZ or whatever. I've been to Sacramento before, in 2005 when I was still a "corporate-possessed music junkie", to attend a clasical music concert, and the radio stations there are oh so corporate now that I know the dangers of media consolidation! So the conclusion?
Big media caused Rock the Bells, a concert tour with mostly unknown hip-hop acts, to be cancelled in Sacramento.
This is just one of the consequences of big media. Tomorrow or soon, I shall explore the dangers of media consolidation on TV.-
"Sunday - August 19th - Sacramento, CA - Sleep Train Amphitheatre - Cancelled
Refunds available at original point of purchase.
The Rock the Bells Festival date scheduled for Sunday, August 19 at the Sleep Train Pavilion near Sacramento, CA has unfortunately been cancelled due to slow ticket sales. Fans will be able to receive full refunds at their original point of purchase. The tour will be in the Northern California area on Saturday, August 18 for a sojavascript:void(0)
Publish Postld out show at McCovey’s Cove in San Francisco.
Festival founder Chang Weisberg from promoter Guerilla Union adds, 'I am disappointed that we weren't able to sell enough tickets to bring the full Rock The Bells experience to Sacramento this year. Unfortunately our San Francisco show was too popular. We know that over 4,000 people are coming from the Sacramento area based on our online ticket sales info. We kinda hurt ourselves with our own ambition to play Sacramento this year. We hope to bring Rock The Bells back to this area very soon.'"
:(
Well, I feel sorry for all the fans of good hip-hop residing in the Central Valley who have to drive another 90 minutes just to get to cold San Francisco. The Bay Area is big enough that there's actually "nonconformist" hip-hop fans like me who can look beyond the corporate monsters of Wild 94.9, BET, and MTV to listen to underrated hip-hop MC's who don't get much media exposure. Well, you have exceptions like Kanye West and Lupe Fiasco, but we can't totally rely on big corporate media to give us the new stuff from talented MC's like Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Redman, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, etc. We have to suffer all the terrible derivative mindless pop-rap from G-Unot, Ugly Ricky, DTP, etc on the corporate media. The cancellation of the Rock the Bells show in Sacramento due to poor sales shows just how corporate America with its media consolidation can affect "smaller" markets like Sacramento and silence the voices of new and upcoming artists.
Media consolidation has been a big issue among the Creative Voices of America since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 relaxed rules on media consolidation. Nowadays, we have only a few big media corporations giving us what we hear on radio, responsible for influencing music sales, so let's have a look at how the radio is owned, shall we??
Clear Channel Communications owns these radio stations locally, in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- KSJO-FM "92.3 La Preciosa" (Mexican oldies)
- KYLD-FM "Wild 94.9" (hip-hop)
- KUFX "98.5 KFOX" (classic rock)
- KIOI 101.3 (pop)
- KDON 102.5 (hip-hop)
- KKSF 103.7 (jazz)
- KCNL 104.9 (alternative rock)
- KMEL 106.1 (hip-hop, with a more "open-to-the-underground" playlist than 94.9)
- KNEW-AM 910 (conservative talk)
- KKGN-AM 960 (liberal talk)
Empire broadcasting owns these local stations:
- KRTY 95.3 (country)
- KLIV-AM 1590 (news)
CBS Corporation:
- KITS 105.3 "Live 105" (alternative rock, but their playlist is more open to indie acts than does the over-corporate KCNL)
- KCBS-AM 740 (news)
Cumulus broadcasting:
- KFFG 97.7 (San Jose)/KFOG 104.5 (San Francisco) - adult album alternative
- KSAN-FM "107.7 the Bone" (hard rock)
- KNBR-AM 680/KTCT-AM 1050 (both stations run under "KNBR" banner, sports format)
The Walt Disney Company:
- KSFO-AM "Hot Talk 560" (conservative talk)
- KGO-AM "News Talk 810" (news & talk)
- KMKY-AM 1310 "Radio Disney" (children's)
Bonneville:
- KOIT 96.5 (light pop)
- KDFC 102.1 (classical)
Now, these are perhaps the most well-known stations in the area! The rest of the stations are owned by smaller companies, NPR, or local colleges. (Don't even get me started on "pirate" radio!) Luckily, because San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose is a big, profitable market, while there is room for the "conformist" music fans who get their music & information off the radio, there's also room for the "nonconformist" listeners who get their music off Live 105 or indie outlets or their news off the "alternative press". I fit somewhere between these two categories: While I get not all of my music and news off the radio, I do not consider myself 100% "anti-mainstream". Thus, the only music stations I really listen to are 104.5, 105.3, 106.1, and 107.7, as most bands I feel have true talent do not get much media exposure. (Look at my Last.fm and you'll see. Luckily, the programmers at local college radio stations 90.1 (KZSU, Stanford), 90.5 (KSJS, San Jose State), and 103.3 (KSCU, Santa Clara U.), are brave enough to play "indie" rap and rock that seldom get played on my fave corporate stations.
This story is easy enough to be viable in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Unfortunately, in the smaller Sacramento market, even a higher percentage of well-known radio stations are corporatized! Now, here's the logic: smaller market + larger corporate media ownership = less room for "unknown" talent to be heard. According to Wikipedia's list of Sacramento-area stations, Entercom, Clear Channel, CBS, Entravision, etc. have stakes on numerous FM stations, leaving less room for "indie" radio like KDEE 97.7 or KXJZ or whatever. I've been to Sacramento before, in 2005 when I was still a "corporate-possessed music junkie", to attend a clasical music concert, and the radio stations there are oh so corporate now that I know the dangers of media consolidation! So the conclusion?
Big media caused Rock the Bells, a concert tour with mostly unknown hip-hop acts, to be cancelled in Sacramento.
This is just one of the consequences of big media. Tomorrow or soon, I shall explore the dangers of media consolidation on TV.-
08 August 2007
It's been two weeks, dang!
In the past two weeks, I've been incredibly busy with AP English Literature, studying for the last few days of summer math analysis, and other things that distracted me from this blog. Hey, that happens to everyone, I guess. I can't believe it's already August, almost the end of the summer! On 8/17 I'll be getting my ID picture taken. On 8/23 I'll be picking up my schedule. In 5 days I will start my junior year of high school, with three confirmed AP Classes: Calculus AB, English Literature, and United States History. In addition, I'll also be taking Biology, Spanish 3, and...BAND!! Yes, I initially decided to drop it, but later kept it because my friend Tom convinced me that percussion won't be a bad instrument for me given that I already play piano. Oh well, it'll be exciting, I guess.
Also, I recently saw the video for Killswitch Engage's cover of the old 1980s Dio song "Holy Diver". The video is awesome, and KsE pwns Dio! This song will be included in the re-release of KsE's "As Daylight Dies", originally released November 2006, on 8/28/2007 (coincidentially the first day of school for many of us). I, having already dl'ed "As Daylight Dies", hope to find the song from a friend or somewhere. Check out the video right here, courtesy KsE's official myspace page:
Also, I recently saw the video for Killswitch Engage's cover of the old 1980s Dio song "Holy Diver". The video is awesome, and KsE pwns Dio! This song will be included in the re-release of KsE's "As Daylight Dies", originally released November 2006, on 8/28/2007 (coincidentially the first day of school for many of us). I, having already dl'ed "As Daylight Dies", hope to find the song from a friend or somewhere. Check out the video right here, courtesy KsE's official myspace page:
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