NEWS RELEASE from MORALITY IN MEDIA, Inc.
NEW YORK (13 October 2004) – The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability yesterday against the Fox Television Network and its affiliates for a violation of the Federal broadcast indecency law. MIM president Robert Peters had the following comments:
“The FCC is to be commended for following up on its Golden Globe Awards and Super Bowl Half-time Show decisions with yet another indecency determination against a TV network—this time against the Fox TV Network for airing content one might expect in a burlesque show.
“Burlesque had seen its ‘best days’ by the time I came of age, but I can still remember my father talking about burlesque shows when I was a child. He must have gotten a kick out of them; but not even my father would have recommended moving the burlesque stage from an ‘adults only’ performance hall to a public park so that everyone could share in the good times.
“He and almost every other adult in the ‘great generation’ understood that there were some things that might be tolerable for adults but which clearly weren’t suitable for children.
“For much of its history, TV broadcasters also understood that its audience consisted of a cross section of the community, including children of all ages. But those days are long gone.
“Today, broadcasters think they need to keep up with the hog pen crowd on cable TV, and undoubtedly there is a large market for the hogwash readily available there.
“But there is a much larger market for programming that uplifts the human spirit and for pure entertainment that doesn’t pollute mind and soul. I hope that TV broadcasters will soon get the message that they can serve the public interest and still make large profits.”
MORALITY IN MEDIA is a nonprofit national organization, with headquarters at 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 239, New York, NY 10115, which works to curb traffic in obscenity and to uphold standards of decency in the media. MIM operates the ObscenityCrimes.org Web site—where citizens can report possible violations of federal Internet obscenity laws to Federal prosecutors—and the National Obscenity Law Center, a unique legal resource for legislators, prosecutors and others.
Author: MIM 10/13/2004
