|
Statement by L. Brent Bozell
Founder and
President of the Parents Television Council
On the
Release of
MTV Smut Peddlers:
Targeting kids with sex, drugs and alcohol
Good
morning, thank you for coming. My name is Brent Bozell, and I am the
Founder and President of the Parents Television Council.
It
was one year ago today that Janet Jackson deliberately exposed her
breast to a world-wide audience that included millions of
unsuspecting children during the MTV-produced 2004 Super Bowl halftime
show. One year later, the entertainment industry is still reeling from
the backlash.
The incident became one of the biggest news stories
of 2004, but why? Why were so many parents shocked by the incident?
How is it that "three-quarters of a second on a broadcast television and
13 frames of video" have become the lynchpin for our discussions about
where the culture is headed?
One possible explanation is that in that moment,
millions of parents finally saw, and understood what their children are
seeing every afternoon on MTV.
Parents witnessed first-hand the incessant
crotch-grabbing and revealing clothing, the dangerous mixture of
aggression and sexuality, and the relentless sexual simulation and
stimulation that characterize MTV's programming.
The reality is that parents need
to be worried about MTV not only because of its popularity, but also
because of its tremendous influence in the lives of America's teens and
pre-teens. According to the L.A.
Daily News, "MTV has had as far-reaching an
influence on many facets of popular culture as any cable television
network. It's effects on music, TV and lifestyle fashions have been deep
and enduring"
MTV is the most recognized network among young adults ages 12 to 34,
according to Nielsen Media Research. It is watched by 73% of boys and
78% of girls ages 12 to 19.
What's more revealing than that statistic is what MTV's own marketers
have to say about the network's influence on young viewers:
√ They look to
MTV to find out about their world in their language, from their point of
view.
√
Young adults 15-17 are excited consumers
and extremely impressionable. Now is the time to influence their
choices.
MTV is owned by Viacom, the same corporate giant that owns CBS (which
aired the Super Bowl) and Nickelodeon, and that corporate synergy
ensures that even the youngest TV viewers are getting acclimated to the
MTV brand. As one TV critic put it: "Nickelodeon isn't just
SpongeBob Squarepants: It's
a gateway station to crotch- grabbing MTV. With millions of viewers,
Nickelodeon offers the perfect cross-marketing vehicle for Viacom: Kids
love it; parents trust its programming."
Watching MTV changes the attitudes and perceptions
of young viewers. At least two experiments show that watching MTV
results in more permissive attitudes abut sex. One such experiment
found that seventh and ninth graders were more likely to approve of
premarital sex after watching MTV for just one hour.
And it's not just the sexual messages on MTV that
influence teen behavior. According to the Institute on Media and the
Family, even modest viewing of MTV and other music videos results in
significant exposure to glamorized depictions of alcohol and tobacco
use, alcohol use linked with sexuality, and violence and weapons.
Violent lyric content can also contribute to teens' desensitization to
violence.
Yes,
Janet Jackson's shameful performance during the Super Bowl did give
parents some insight into the world their teens inhabit after school,
but it was just the tip of the iceberg. Just how much sex, vulgarity
and violence are teens being exposed to on this teen-targeted network?
That's what the PTC set out to discover with this study.
The Parents Television Council undertook a content
analysis of MTV programming during its enormously popular annual "Spring
Break" coverage. The PTC
recorded and analyzed 171 hours of programming around the clock during
the week of March 20, 2004 to March 27, 2004.
The
PTC found that MTV contains staggering levels of sex and foul language
far higher than one would find on primetime broadcast television.
Specifically:
-
In 171 hours
of MTV programming, PTC analysts found a staggering 1,548 sexual
scenes containing 3,056 depictions of sex or various forms of nudity
and 2,881 verbal sexual references. That means that children
watching MTV are viewing an average of 9 sexual scenes per hour with
approximately 18 sexual depictions and 17 instances of sexual
dialogue or innuendo. To put
this in perspective, consider that in its last study of sex on
primetime network television, the PTC found an average of only 5.8
instances of sexual content during the 10 o'clock hour when only
adults are watching. In other words, children watching
MTV are getting almost three times the adult content that adults get
late at night.
-
Analysts
recorded 1,518 uses of unedited foul language and an additional
3,127 bleeped profanities on MTV programming. That means that the
young children watching MTV are subjected to roughly 8.9 un-bleeped
profanities per hour, and an additional 18.3 bleeped profanities per
hour. By contrast, the 10
o'clock hour on the broadcast networks averaged only 6.5 uses of
foul language per hour, according to the PTC's latest research.
Again: children are being hit with three times as much
adult profane language as adults.
-
Violence was
least problematic but still high at 6 instances per hour of
programming (1,068 violent incidents total).
Even the broadcast networks averaged only 5.8 instances of violence
per hour during the 10 o'clock timeslot.
-
Music Videos
contained more foul language and violence than MTV's series or
specials. In the 109 hours of music video programming contained
within the study period, analysts recorded 3,483 uses of foul
language (32 instances per hour). Violence occurred in music videos
at a rate of 8.6 instances per hour (935 violent scenes).
-
MTV's reality
shows had more sexual content than the music videos. In 66 hours of
reality programming, PTC analysts recorded 833 segments containing
sexual content, or 12.6 scenes per hour. Within those 833 segments,
there were 905 visual depictions of sexual activity and 917 verbal
references.
-
Bleeped
language was the most prevalent, constituting 67.3% of the total
foul language recorded, or 18.3 utterances per hour. In the sex
category, there were approximately 9 sex scenes per hour containing
35 individual instances of sex (visual and verbal) per hour. PTC
analysts found 6 violent scenes or scenarios per hour.
If any good can be said to have come out of the
Janet Jackson Super Bowl debacle, it is this: parents now know what
their children are watching every afternoon on MTV. But merely
recognizing that there's a problem clearly isn't enough. Parents allow
more than half the children in this country to have television sets in
their bedrooms. Surveys indicate that 44% of children say they watch
something different when they are alone than when they are with their
parents, and 25% of those children choose MTV.
The
incessant sleaze on MTV presents the most compelling case yet for
consumer cable choice. As it now stands, most parents have no choice
but to take and pay for MTV if they want basic cable in their
homes. Given the choice, how many parents now being forced to take and
pay for MTV as part of a basic cable package, would continue to do so?
It is unconscionable
for the cable industry to force families to subsidize this kind of filth
for the privilege of being able to watch TV Land, or the Food Network,
or Disney Channel. Parents should not have to take into their homes and
pay for programming that undermines their core values and beliefs.
Offering parents the ability to choose and pay for
the channels they want puts power back in the hands of the consumer and
forces the producers of indecent or violent programming to fund their
own raunch.
Cable is now in nearly as many homes as broadcast
TV. We can no longer afford to ignore the rising tide of vulgar and
violent programming on cable aimed directly at our children. It's time
for a better option.
|
