I hesitated in posting this. One, because I hate to give these guys any more publicity, two because it is utterly tasteless, and three, because it's been bugging me a long time and it took me this long to do something about it.
I wrote the following letter to a local TV station. It was long overdue.
To whom it may concern:
I would like this letter to be entered into your public file. It concerns your airing of the program “Family Guy” at 4:30 PM on weekdays.
You run a disclaimer before the show, but since it airs in a time slot where children are out of school and many parents are still at work, I do not believe that a mere disclaimer is sufficient to keep the adult and often inappropriate content away from young, impressionable minds.
You acknowledge by the disclaimer that this is intended for mature audiences, but air it in an "after school" time slot. I would not presume to censor the show in any way, but the time slot the syndicated show airs is inappropriate for children and thus does not serve the needs of the community.
Please move this program to a more appropriate time slot, should you decide to continue airing it. Thank you.
It was addressed to the station, and signed, delivered by snail mail.
If anyone wants to complain about a similar situation, tell the station you want your comment to go into their public file.
Station license holders must demonstrate that they are providing programming in the best interests of their community, in order to keep their license. Any negative information in the public file is perceived as a threat to their livelihood. For that reason, a letter addressed to their public file will have more impact than say, a call to their switchboard. I was once told that if you wanted to put the Fear of God into any radio or TV station, all you had to do was walk in during business hours and ask to see the public file.
Family Guy is funny at times, offensive at others and gross most of the time. Any adult who wants to watch it should be able to. But, trusting a latchkey kid to police himself and not watch it? Why not leave your liquor cabinet unlocked with your car keys on top of it sometime?
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Proof, This is really vital information to know. Thanks for publishing it. Having come from a position in government, I learned that most of the time a person just needs to know what process or procedure has the most impact to get the attention of bureaucrats and elected leaders. And most of the time, the most effective process is hidden from the public. Anyone wanting to test this, just go to any government website and try to find straight forward, clear and easy to understand info.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I wish I didn't have to. In an ideal world, people wouldn't be airing this stuff where kids could see it unsupervised.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little like Playboy magazine. I have no problem with its existence or circulation, except when it comes to children. Playboy should not be accessible to children in public libraries and adult content should not be on in the afternoons on public TV stations.
Color me old fashioned!