PTC Insider Article
December 2003

2003 Parents Television Council Victories

PTC Grassroots Take Root Nationwide

The PTC is gaining national recognition for being the country's leading force for positive change in the entertainment industry and the American family's voice in Hollywood. Newspapers across the country are starting to recognize the PTC's impact. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram had this to say about the PTC: "Perhaps the strongest and most influential lobbying group is the Parents Television Council, which can quickly pump up and then mobilize its 800,000 members to any issue. When the Fox series Keen Eddie aired an episode in which a prostitute was asked to perform a sex act with a horse - within days the PTC filed 20,000 complaints with the Federal Communications Commission."

The PTC's growing grassroots network has played an important part in the PTC's ability to mobilize its members across the country to take action. With more than a dozen active and growing grassroots chapters nationwide, the networks, network affiliates, the FCC, and TV sponsors now accept that the PTC is a force to be reckoned with.

The PTC's grassroots activists are already making waves in their local communities. Below are some of the highlights from this year: "In response to a national PTC initiative, Kansas City Chapter Director Tim Maupin sent a letter to the local Fox network affiliate complaining about the content on Fox's Keen Eddie. The station manager sent a reply to the chapter director which has been dubbed "The Smoking Gun" by Congressional leaders in the fight to reduce media ownership of local outlets. In the letter, the station manager states, "The network, not WDAF (the local affiliate) decided what shows go on the air for the Fox-owned and operated television stations," a statement that directly contradicted what network heads had told Congress in sworn testimony. Representatives Burr and Dingell cited Maupin's letter in a letter urging their colleagues in the House of Representatives to halt the FCC's plans to allow big media companies to buy up more local affiliates.

In Salt Lake City and South Bend, two of the PTC's newest and most active grassroots cities, a loud outcry initiated by grassroots chapter directors led to the preemption of NBC's sex-laden sitcom Coupling on the local NBC affiliates.

When a local Michigan radio show announced the opening
of the Southeast Michigan grassroots chapter, the newly-created chapter e-mail was so flooded with responses to join, that it crashed the server of a local internet provider!

Our Southeast Michigan Grassroots chapter director, Rich Coleman, will be hosting a 30-minute weekly television show on the local ITV station. The program will spotlight PTC Seal of Approval winning films and television shows.

PTC Grassroots chapters sent letters to all CBS affiliates asking them to consider local community decency standards and preempt the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, which aired in late November. PTC members reported back to us that CBS affiliates in Amarillo, Texas and Little Rock, Arkansas refused to air the program.

List of Local PTC Chapters

Other 2003 Victories