Do the PTC have much sway in America?

[The Curmudgeon]

The Parents Television Council first came to my attention after the debut of a wrestling group called Right To Censor, which was (so I read) a parody of the group, who were lobbying against the WWF at the time (good ol' Vince McMahon - making a group of fascist killjoys is sure to calm the situation), but other than that I'd never heard of them.

Are they a big deal in America? Like, do they have much sway when it comes to what is shown on TV or not?

[xfiruath]

I'd never even heard of them until now, but then again I don't subscribe to cable or sattelite. For those very few TV shows I actually enjoy, I just buy them on DVD.

After doing a little research, it turns out that the PTC is responsible for 99% of all complaints filed with the FCC. Holy shit. I'm pretty staunchly against censorship (if you don't like it, why are you watching it?? Just turn it off!), but the PTC does actually have one idea that I do agree with - making cable and sattelite companies allow customers to just pick and pay for only the channels they want, instead of an overall package that probably has a bunch of crap we don't want to see. That would be awesome, and I'd be all for it, as there are probably only 2 or 3 channels total that I'm interested in, and I certainly wouldn't want to pay for whatever premium package those channels are included in. I'm guessing those companies would see a huge dip in their profits at that point though, so it will likely never happen.

[trashcanman]

I'm sure I've heard of them at some point, but I often choose to ignore these kinds of bastards, since they make me nauseous. They certainly aren't any big deal as far as media exposure, but xfiruath's research implies that they are an incredibly powerful lobbying force since the FCC's abominable crackdowns on every kind of entertainment -all supposedly in our best interest- are brought about by alleged complaints from viewers. There's an episode of "The Simpsons" where Ned Flanders is going through a stack of video tapes of every show on television specifically to make notes of offensive content and send complaints to the FCC. So funny, so very true. (sigh)




That's right, I finally figured out why I couldn't post pictures. IIt's fun time! ;D