АҚШ Телебағдарламаларын Бағалайтын Үйым және Отбасылық Құндылықтар Қорғаушысы

Non profit advocacy group in the United States
the nonprofit group that rates TV shows

The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by conservative Christian activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which advocates for what it considers to be responsible, family friendly content across all media platforms, and for advertisers to be held accountable for the content of television programs that they sponsor. The PTMC officially describes itself as a non partisan organization, although the group has also been described as partisan and socially conservative. The PTMC produces reviews, research reports, and online newsletters that highlight television programs and other entertainment products (such as music videos and video games) based on their suitability for family viewing. The PTMC has advocated for cable television networks to be subject to the same decency rules as broadcast television, and for television providers to allow subscribers to purchase channels on an individual basis. The group has also been critical of the TV Parental Guidelines system, often deeming the ratings given by broadcasters to be inaccurate in comparison to their own assessments of a program's content. It has mounted pressure campaigns against the producers, broadcasters, and sponsors of programming that they perceive to be indecent or harmful to children (such as those containing undue sexual content, profane language, and violence); these campaigns typically include the organized mass mailing of form letters and emails to advertising sponsors of unapproved programs, organized mass filing of complaints via the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website complaint form, and direct threats of long, potentially costly FCC license challenges to local network affiliates planning to broadcast what the council considers harmful network programming. Throughout its existence, the Parents Television and Media Council has been accused of promoting censorship. In 2004, the FCC reported that the group was the primary source of most content complaints received by the commission. MRC founder and president L. Brent Bozell III later felt that "decency" was declining on most prime time television programming. The PTC began operations in 1995 following private planning meetings with Charlton Heston, Michael Medved, and others in the entertainment industry, who would eventually make up the advisory board of the PTC. After the release of its first annual Family Guide to Prime Time Television following the 1995–1996 television season, the PTC hoped to hold the entertainment industry accountable for the indecency that it perceived to be prominent on prime time television. By 1996, the organization had the support of several members of the U. S. Congress, including Joe Lieberman and Lamar S. Smith, and an estimated annual budget of $142,000. comedian and former The Tonight Show host Steve Allen joined PTC as its Honorary Chairman, and PTC released a report questioning the accuracy of the TV Parental Guidelines ratings system and campaigning for advertisers to stop sponsoring programs that the PTC claimed were offensive. Allen launched a newspaper advertisement campaign promoting the PTC, which was published in many outlets including The New York Times. The PTC was noted for criticizing such shows as Ally McBeal, Dawson's Creek, Ellen, Friends, and Spin City. Its website was also introduced that year, and its annual budget had already surpassed $1 million. The PTC lost nearly $1 million in 2008 and in 2009 received $2.9 million in revenue, a 29 percent drop from the previous year. In 2009 and 2010, the PTC cut its staff by 38 percent to save money.

PTC was founded in 1995 by longtime political activist L. Brent Bozell III. Bozell is a prominent conservative activist who has, among other things, served as executive director of the Conservative Victory Committee, a political action committee that has supported the election of dozens of conservative candidates over the past ten years. He was also National Finance Chairman for Pat Buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign, and later president of the National Conservative Political Action Committee. Bozell was succeeded as PTC President by Timothy F. Winter. Winter served as executive director of the PTC for three years prior to becoming president. Prior to joining the PTC, Mr. Winter's 20 year career as a media executive included positions with Metro Goldwyn Mayer and NBC. Until 2015 when his position was terminated, Dan Isett, Director of Corporate and Government Affairs of the PTC, represented the PTC on the Consumer Advisory Committee of the Federal Communications Commission.

The PTC also has an advisory board consisting of politicians and entertainers working to assist the council in their goal of protecting children against profanity and violence in the media. Notable members of the advisory board have included singer Pat Boone, former football player Mel Renfro, writer producer Coleman Luck, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus, comedian and actor Tim Conway of CBS's The Carol Burnett Show, former U. S. Senator from Kansas and 2008 presidential candidate Sam Brownback, film critic Michael Medved, star of 1980s soap opera Dallas Susan Howard, and ION Television producer Gary Johnson. In addition, the PTC has established numerous local chapters for most American media markets. Notable former advisory board members include both of whom are now deceased comedian Steve Allen, original host of NBC's The Tonight Show, and C. Delores Tucker, participant in the Civil Rights Movement and activist against gangsta rap music; Allen is now given the title of National Honorary Chairman Emeritus. Bahçeşehir University associate professor Christian Christiansen questioned the backgrounds of certain PTC advisory board members as not consistent with their stance on morality.

The PTC's activities extend to evaluation, rating, and educating around broadcast TV programs according to a traffic light system across three categories of sex, violence and profanity, accumulating to an overall rating based on the ratings of these three categories. The guide has been in use since the 1995–96 season using the traffic light system. In the PTC's definition of its traffic light system, green light indicates that the program is "appropriate for all ages", a yellow light indicates that the program "would be unsuitable for children under the age of 14", and a red light indicates that the program is "appropriate for adult audiences only". Every television season since 1995–96, the council has released a list of the best and worst prime time television programs for family viewing. The PTC's website includes the guide from the 1996 97 season at the earliest. Starting with the 2005–2006 season, their list was based on their traffic light system as well as Nielsen Media Research ratings of viewership among children ages 2–17 of certain shows. 7th Heaven, Touched by an Angel, Home Improvement, Family Matters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Boy Meets World, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, NBC Sunday Night Football, Deal or No Deal, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Popular shows frequently named "Worst of the Season" include American Dad!, Friends, Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, compared the PTC's frequent negative reviews of the series to "hate mail from Hitler" and "They're literally terrible human beings. I've read their newsletter, I've visited their website, and they're just rotten to the core. For an organization that prides itself on 'Christian' values they spend their entire day hating people." MacFarlane became a target again when the PTC protested the Academy Awards' decision to have him host the 85th ceremony. "So You Think You Can Rate a TV Show? ", the title being a play on the title of Fox television series So You Think You Can Dance, is a weekly column the PTC began in July 2007 to claim that networks inaccurately rate their shows based on the TV Parental Guidelines, whether the network applied the improper age based rating (such as TV PG or TV 14) or failed to include the proper content descriptors (such as "L" for language or "V" for violence).

To recognize excellence in the media, the Parents Television Council awards its Seal of Approval to television shows, movies, home products, and advertisers that provide or sponsor content it deems to be "family friendly". It is divided into two categories: Entertainment and Advertiser. Popular television shows that have been awarded include 7th Heaven, American Idol, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Everybody Loves Raymond, George Lopez, JAG, Reba, Smallville, Touched by an Angel, The West Wing, The Wonderful World of Disney, and most recently, When Calls the Heart. Also receiving the Entertainment Seal of Approval are TiVo's KidZone television filtering service, The Jimmy Wilson Films Children's Adventure Series, the Sky Angel Christian television service, and the CleanFlicks DVD filtering product.

In 2003, the PTC unsuccessfully campaigned for the FCC to take action against the NBC television network in response to the use of the word "fucking" by Bono, lead singer for the rock band U2, during the network's January 2003 telecast of the Golden Globe Awards. Among an audience of nearly 20 million, the FCC received only 234 complaints, 217 of which came from the PTC. In October 2003, the FCC decided not to fine NBC because Bono's obscenity was ruled as fleeting and not describing sexual or excretory functions, the FCC's standard for fining a network for indecency. After the PTC filed an Application for Review to the FCC, in March 2004 the FCC decided that the word was indecent by law but still decided not to fine NBC; however, the ruling was to serve as a warning to networks that there would be a "zero tolerance" policy towards obscene language willfully used during the daytime. However, the PTC's complaints about profanity used by presenter Nicole Richie in the December 10, 2003 broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards led the FCC to conclude that the language violated decency law. The PTC began attracting more attention after it filed around 65,000 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, in which one of performer Janet Jackson's nipple shielded breasts, was exposed for 9/16ths of a second. FCC chairman Michael Powell stated that the number of indecency complaints to the FCC had risen from 350 in the years 2000 and 2001, to 14,000 in 2002 and 240,000 in 2003. It was also found that the PTC had generated most of the indecency complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission. In July 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit voided the fine. After the halftime show, the PTC launched five more FCC complaint drives, starting March 2004 with an episode of Fox's That '70s Show titled "Happy Jack", which revolved around character Eric Forman being caught masturbating. The beginning of the 2004–2005 television season sparked four new campaigns, the first being against NBC's animated series Father of the Pride, stating that it contained a "barrage of sexual innuendo and profanity" while being promoted "from the creators of Shrek", which they felt would potentially attract children to watching the series. That campaign led to over 11,000 email complaints to the FCC. Later, shortly after CBS broadcast the word "fuck" during an airing of Big Brother 5, the PTC took action again, this time claiming that CBS ignored a warning from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that there would be zero tolerance toward unbleeped profanity. However, those complaints became moot when Viacom, then owners of CBS, settled with the FCC for $3.5 million regarding all allegedly indecent programming broadcast in the years around 2003 and 2004, including the Big Brother 5 episode in question. In March 2006, the FCC ruled that Father of the Pride was not indecent. Following were complaints about an October 2004 episode of ABC's short lived teen drama Life As We Know It, which the PTC felt was sexually charged. The PTC started off 2005 with their campaign against the Without a Trace episode "Our Sons and Daughters", leading to CBS being fined for indecency in March 2006; the PTC objected to the depiction of teenagers participating in an orgy in that episode. CBS argued that the episode "featured an important and socially relevant storyline warning parents to exercise greater supervision of their teenagers." The FCC fined CBS $3.63 million in March 2006 for this episode, The FCC received complaints from the PTC in the summer over an unedited broadcast of the lyric "who the fuck are you?" in The Who's song "Who Are You" from the Live 8 concert broadcast July 2, 2005 on ABC stations on the East Coast. In 2006, PTC requested that the FCC deny broadcast license renewal for Salt Lake City CBS station KUTV because they felt that the broadcast of the Without a Trace episode that was ruled indecent violated community standards and that CBS failed to take action to reduce indecent content following the FCC fines. Subsequently, CBS agreed to pay the FCC $300,000 to settle the KUTV license challenge. Starting from December 2007, the organization demanded that CBS cancel its plan to rebroadcast an edited version of the Showtime drama Dexter, whose title character was a serial killer and police forensics analyst, because it felt that the program would glorify murder even with the edits. By early February 2008, the Council claimed to have collected 17,000 complaints to CBS. On January 25, 2008, the FCC proposed an estimated $1.4 million fine against ABC for a scene of female nudity in the NYPD Blue episode "Nude Awakening" aired on February 25, 2003. Because the episode aired outside the indecency "safe harbor" in the Central and Mountain Time Zones, the fine applied only to ABC stations in those zones. The PTC praised the FCC's action. However, PTC president Winter condemned ABC's decision to appeal the fine in federal court. PTC has also criticized the Third Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to void the FCC's fine for the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. TV series that the PTC has targeted for FCC complaints in 2008 have included NBC's Today morning show and CBS primetime programs Big Brother 10, Survivor: Gabon, and Two and a Half Men. Profanity was the main concern for Today and Big Brother 10, the extremely brief exposure of contestant Marcus Lehman's penis for Survivor: Gabon, and a "lap dance" scene for Two and a Half Men. The PTC's first complaint in 2009 was over sexual content in an episode of Family Guy titled "Family Gay". Later in 2009, the PTC urged affiliates of The CW to pre empt a Gossip Girl episode to be aired November 9; the episode would reportedly contain a threesome scene. In response to Adam Lambert's performance of his song "For Your Entertainment" at the end of the 2009 American Music Awards broadcast on ABC, PTC urged viewers to complain to the FCC if living in an area where the performance was shown before 10 p. m. local time. PTC complained that the performance contained a simulation of oral sex. Lambert's performance reportedly was broadcast around 11 p. m. Eastern and Pacific time, "outside the FCC's usual 6am 10pm time frame prohibiting the broadcast of indecent material". ABC also received about 1,500 telephoned complaints. In January 2010, the PTC launched a complaint campaign after the American Dad! episode "Don't Look a Smith Horse in the Mouth" aired in January 2010. The FCC fined Fox $25,000 on June 4, stating that they failed to respond to an inquiry of 100,000 complaints about the episode. A month later, Fox slammed the decision, claiming that it was "unconstitutional". On May 20, 2010, the PTC announced that it plans to target CBS and its affiliates after the network announced that the new sitcom $#*! My Dad Says was added to the 2010 2011 fall TV lineup. The PTC cites both the show's title and its Thursday 8:30 pm timeslot as reasons. The series is based on the popular Twitter account created by Justin Halpern, who also served as one of the co producers on the show. CBS defended its decision and said that it was working with the account's creator and its content was toned down for the program before the series premiere in September. In October 2010, the PTC targeted an episode of the Fox series Glee, stating that the episode featured outfits that were scantily clad and guest star Britney Spears going shopping in lingerie, calling it, "an endorsement of narcotics abuse, public masturbation, and school sanctioned burlesque." They were also criticizing it for making an episode idolizing Britney in the first place, stating: "Perhaps most troubling is the deification of a troubled popstar into a symbol of empowerment and self esteem." On October 20, PTC criticized GQ magazine for featuring three Glee stars posing in risque outfits; the PTC statement said that the photoshoot "borders on pedophilia." In January 2011, the PTC called on the United States Department of Justice and the Judiciary Committees of both houses of Congress to investigate whether MTV violated child pornography laws in casting teenaged actors in Skins, a remake of the British TV series of the same name. MTV rated Skins "TV MA", meaning the show is not suitable for audiences under 17. The Los Angeles Times responded in an editorial: " looking for government remedies is ineffective and unwise; we suspect the network's editors are smart enough to skirt prosecution. The Federal Communications Commission doesn't regulate the content of cable networks, and even if it did, a crackdown on shows like "Skins" would be a bad idea, because adults should be able to watch whatever they like on cable and federal attempts to protect kids from adult programming have never been successful." In August 2020, the PTC requested that Netflix remove the film Cuties from its streaming service.

In May 2005 Carl's Jr. introduced its "Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger" in a television advertisement featuring celebrity Paris Hilton in a swimsuit, soaping up a Bentley Arnage while leaning on it, and then eating the burger. A similar ad with Hilton for Hardee's hamburger chain was aired in June 2005. The Parents Television Council and other media watchdog groups criticized the commercial for being shown during programs that were very likely to be watched by children. Melissa Caldwell, PTC research director, said, "This commercial is basically soft core porn. The way she moves, the way she puts her finger in her mouth—it's very suggestive and very titillating." The group mobilized more than one million members to contact the restaurant chain and voice their concern and claimed that "[i]f this television commercial were to go unchallenged it would set a new standard for acceptable television commercial content." Caldwell, then president Bozell, and then executive director Winter appeared on various news programs such as Good Morning America, Today, The Early Show, American Morning, and The O'Reilly Factor to discuss this issue. Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl's Jr., says the group needs to "get a life This isn't Janet Jackson—there is no nipple shield in this," referring to the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy. He continued, "There is no nudity, there is no sex act — it's a beautiful model in a swimsuit washing a car." In addition to featuring the ad on their web site, Carl's Jr. also set up another website playing a longer version of the commercial. PTC accused television commercials for Hardee's "biscuit holes" food product of suggesting double entendres. The commercial featured consumers suggesting "A holes" and "B holes" as nicknames for the biscuit holes. Boddie Noell Enterprises, which owned 350 Hardee's restaurants in four states, refused to show the ads in its respective markets. Ben Mayo Boddie, chairman of Boddie Noell, wrote a letter to the PTC condemning the ads as well.

In 1999, the PTC launched a campaign against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), complaining that their SmackDown! program contained levels of sexuality and violence unbecoming prime time programming. In the campaign, Bozell said that four children had been killed by peers emulating professional wrestling moves learned from the program. With these allegations, Bozell and various PTC members began meeting with representatives of the advertising departments of various companies that advertised on SmackDown! to persuade them to withdraw sponsorship. The PTC also suggested that between 30 and 40 advertisers had pulled their commercials from WWF programming, an assertion that was not true. On November 9, 2000, the WWF filed a lawsuit against the PTC in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming that the PTC's statements were false and constituted defamation. The WWF also filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the PTC for using clips from WWF programs in their promotional videos. stating that it was wrong to blame the World Wrestling Federation or any of its programs for the deaths of children and that the original statements had been based on what was later found to be false information designed by people close to the Lionel Tate case to blame the death of Tiffany Eunick on the WWF. The PTC would be satirized in WWF programming by The Right to Censor, a group of heels led by Steven Richards who objected to rowdy, risqué, and "hardcore" activities.

In September 2007, the PTC launched a campaign to get airlines in America to reduce the number of "PG 13" and "R" rated films shown as in flight entertainment. Consequently, Heath Shuler, Democratic representative of North Carolina, introduced the Family Friendly Flights Act of 2007 bill to require airlines to set aside "child safe" viewing areas for families to sit in planes. The bill never became law.

Twice has the PTC targeted video hosting website YouTube in its campaigns and statements. PTC called for NBC to reconsider uploading the uncensored clip of the Saturday Night Live novelty song "Dick in a Box" on NBC's site and YouTube channel. In 2008, the PTC released a report The "New" Tube: A Content Analysis of YouTube—the Most Popular Online Video Destination, which praised YouTube for filtering adult content but criticized the site for not filtering profanity and other explicit content from comments sections or videos.

In October 2010, The New York Times reported that former PTC vice president of development Patrick W. Salazar had accused PTC of mishandling hundreds of thousands of mailings to donors and members. Based on Internal Revenue Service filings, the American Institute of Philanthropy rated PTC "C+" on financial efficiency. Salazar also disputed the PTC's official membership figure of 1.3 million and estimated that at most 12,000 people respond to annual fundraisers. Although Salazar stated that he left the PTC in November 2009, the PTC said that it fired Salazar and that Salazar was trying to extort money from the organization. The PTC also criticized WE tv's Sex Box, deeming it "an affront to families, toxic to advertisers, and a clear demonstration of a badly broken business model that forces every cable/satellite subscriber to pay for unwanted and unwatched cable networks."

On its website, PTC states that its mission is to "promote and restore responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry in answer to America's demand for positive, family oriented television programming." The PTC believes that the entertainment industry—not only television but also music, movies, and video games as well—and its sponsors share responsibility with parents for children's television viewing habits. It therefore believes that television is harming children through a perceived "gratuitous" amount of sex, violence, and profanity. Increased government regulation of broadcasting is another viewpoint supported by PTC. PTC considers itself nonpartisan; others have considered the PTC to be bipartisan or socially conservative. Robyn Blumner of the St. Petersburg Times called the PTC "the Gladys Kravitz of public advocacy" in a column of hers and believed the PTC supported a federal policy on broadcast decency she called "Big Nanny run amok".

Since the introduction of the TV Parental Guidelines ratings system, the PTC has frequently accused the guidelines of having inaccuracy and low standards. In 1997, PTC was twice as likely to rate a show with the toughest rating classification, "red light" in the PTC's case, and "TV 14" in the Guidelines. Bill Berkowitz quoted PTC president Bozell as stating, based on PTC research, that "the current ratings system and V chip are failures." In response to a V Chip advertising campaign in the summer of 2006, Bozell proposed instead that cable companies either apply FCC style broadcast television standards or offer choice in ordering channels. Television Watch considers PTC's reporting on the V chip inaccurate and ideologically charged.

The PTC is an avid supporter of "a la carte" cable television services to allow families to choose only the cable television channels that are appropriate for their children, and also impose the same decency standards already in place on broadcast television on cable channels. Frequently, the council has criticized programs on BET, Comedy Central, E!, FX, MTV, Spike, TNT, and VH1 because they claim some of the content aired on those channels is inappropriate for younger viewers. On the other side of the issue, the PTC has awarded its "Seal of Approval" to cable networks Disney Channel and Hallmark Channel for their original programs several years ago. On June 14, 2007, United States Representatives Dan Lipinski (Democratic, Illinois) and Jeff Fortenberry (Republican, Nebraska) introduced into legislation the Family and Consumer Choice Act of 2007, which intends to allow families to choose and pay for only the cable television channels that they want to watch. In September 2007, the PTC launched a new website, HowCableShouldBe. com, to allow cable customers to see how much they are paying for their monthly cable bill currently. In August 2013, the PTC released a statement criticizing MTV for the airing of a performance by Miley Cyrus during its Video Music Awards and urged Congress to pass the Television Consumer Freedom Act.

In April 2008, PTC released The Rap on Rap, a study covering hip hop and R&B music videos rotated on programs 106 & Park and Rap City, both shown on BET, and Sucker Free on MTV. PTC urged advertisers to withdraw sponsorship of those programs, whose videos PTC stated targeted children and teenagers "with adult content once every 38 seconds". PTC also warned radio stations about playing the Britney Spears song "If U Seek Amy" over concerns it contained an audible use of an obscenity. In response to the music video to Miley Cyrus' song "Who Owns My Heart", the PTC stated that it felt it was "unfortunate that she would participate in such a sexualized video like this one"; ironically, Miley Cyrus' father Billy Ray Cyrus sat on the PTC Advisory Board at the time.