THE IDOL PETITION

Stop Harming Our Children. Cancel The Idol!

To: Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors

Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., Chair

David Zaslav, President and CEO

Li Haslett Chen

Richard W. Fisher

Paul A. Gould

Debra L. Lee

Kenneth W. Lowe

Dr. John C. Malone

Fazal Merchant

Steven A. Miron

Steven O. Newhouse

Paula A. Price

Geoffrey Y. Yang

We trust that each of you cares about children. WHY, THEN, are you harming our children by greenlighting tens of millions of dollars to produce mental-emotional poison like The Idol?

Your own corporate ethics statement prohibits you from depicting tobacco use in a way that might influence a young person to smoke—because you admit that entertainment depictions can and do influence behavior. WHY, THEN, do you fund producer Sam Levinson—who admits he is inspired by porn—so that he can create content like The Idol? Why fund a show that even TV critics have slammed as “pornographic,” a “sordid male fantasy,” a “darker, crazier, and more risqué” version of your other porn program by Levinson, Euphoria?

You know entertainment affects behavior—whether using tobacco or engaging in pornographic sex on camera. Yet you are streaming The Idol even when:

• Rolling Stone quoted a production member as calling it “torture porn”

• The Washington Post reports: “So, is the series torture porn-y? Yes. A lot.” (and then describes prolonged scenes of erotic choking, suffocation, and masturbation)

• Evie magazine says, “The series was created to gratify the perverted fantasies of both of its creators . . . sex and violence that serves no purpose”

Each one of you is personally responsible for the damage The Idol will cause to young people.

I/We stand with the Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) to demand you cancel it and remove it from access.

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