Who's Complaining?

According to this Media Week investigation, the vast majority of complaints to the FCC about broadcast indecency are coming from a single conservative group.

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

The PTC is headed by Brent Bozell, a Fox News favorite who has simply got to be one of the most prolific complainers in human history.  As founder of the Media Research Center, he has spawned an industry built on bitching about media bias.  As if that weren't enough, as President of the PTC his is the email adress that launches, literally, millions of complaints to the FCC, television networks, show sponsors and local station owners.

While the PTC is ostensibly non-partisan, Bozell is decidedly not.  He was head of fundraising for Pat Buchanan's 1992 Presidential campaign and President of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC), which funneled millions of dollars to Republican candidates and nothing to Democrats.

Among his allies in his campaign to dictate wht other people should not be able to watch on TV is a celebrity advisory board that reads like a nightmarish dinner theater cast: Tim Conway, Pat Boone, Dean Jones and Billy Ray Cyrus, along with moral exemplar/recovering gambling addict William Bennett and former pro football player Jim "Is He Still Alive?" Otto.

The PTC issues action alerts urging members to complain about shows.  In case the aspiring complainer didn't actually see the show to be offended by it, the PTC website provides text for the letters of complaint.  The letters include "documentation" of why the show would have offended the complainant had the complainant actually seen the show.  Here's a sample from the PTC's form-letter complaint about the little-watched ABC show "Life as We Know It":

Accordingly, COMPLAINANT urges the Commission to sanction all ABC affiliated and owned stations which broadcast "life as we know it." For the reasons above stated, the FCC should exercise its responsibility to enforce the existing law against indecency on broadcast TV between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. (Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 1464) by levying severe sanctions against the broadcasters of this program...

Jonathan's parents also contribute to the pervasive smuttiness.  Jonathan is shown in the bathroom shaving, when his mother knocks on the door. He tells her he's shaving, but his father calls out, "God, Mary, give the kid a break. He's probably masturbating."  Jonathan says, "Hey! I can hear you! Go away! And I'm shaving!"  His father then says, "Whatever. It's all good. Take your time, son."

It is the fear of the PTC that has scared television networks away from broadcasting programming like Saving Private Ryan.  Make no mistake about it: They don't trust you to make your own decisions.  They want the government to decide what's on your television, not the free market.  And with Republicans in office, they're succeeding.