Indoctrinating Kids Against Non-liberal Media: PBS

Trying to counter the imminent demise of the liberal mainstream media, the so-called News Literacy Project (NLP) has infiltrated 21 inner-city and nearby schools in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Chicago with the goal of teaching children to discount Internet-based news information from non-liberal sources.

“I used to read the Daily News or the Post. Now I read The New York Times.”
-- Raquel Monje, high school senior indoctrinated by the NLP at Manhattan’s Facing History School

-- From "In the Media - Press Room" posted at the NLP website

The news-literacy movement has the potential to begin to rewrite the unflattering narratives about the press that have become so pervasive that we’ve nearly stopped questioning them—to remove the derogatory undertone from the phrase “mainstream media.” It has the potential to push back against the hijacking of the journalistic reputation—not only by a sustained and strategic smear campaign on the part of the political right (“the liberal media”), but also on the part of the political left (“the corporate media”).

To read more at the NLP website, CLICK HERE.

From "News Literacy Project Trains Young People to Be Skeptical Media Consumers" transcript posted at The PBS Newshour 12/13/11

JEFFREY BROWN, PBS Newshour: How can young people learn to be better consumers of news and information?

COLIN O'BRIEN, News Literacy Project: You want news sources that are transparent. You want to be able to see who is doing the reporting, see what their agenda is, see who funds them, see if they are, in fact, a credible source or not.

ALAN MILLER, News Literacy Project: There is so much potential here for misinformation, for propaganda, for spin, all of the myriad sources that are out there. More and more of, the onus is shifting to the consumer.

JEFFREY BROWN: And a slew of recent studies supports the notion that young people seek out traditional news sources less and less and that they have a difficult time knowing how to judge the legitimacy of the information that does come at them.

In response, the News Literacy Project, funded by a combination of foundations, corporations and individuals, develops lesson plans for teachers . . .

JEFFREY BROWN: The program also brings journalists into the classroom to run workshops.

JEFFREY BROWN: . . . the idea of making this into a national program got a recent boost from Michael Copps, a member of the Federal Communications Commission.

MICHAEL COPPS, FCC: And we need to focus on bringing all these together in the public sector and in the private sector to develop an online news literacy curriculum that can be made available across the nation. This can be a powerful antidote to the dumbing down of our civic dialogue that has taken place.

JEFFREY BROWN: To further the effort, the News Literacy Project and the American Library Association are launching workshops around the country to make high school students better media watchdogs, with a specific focus on the 2012 political campaign.

To read the entire program transcript above, CLICK HERE.

TV Profanity Usage Skyrockets: Study

Obscene language on primetime television, according to a new study, is on a meteoric rise in both frequency and intensity – with the 'f-word,' for example, being spoken or bleeped 25 times as often as it was only five years ago.

--From "PTC study shows almost 70% jump in bad language on broadcast TV" by Joe Flint, posted at Los Angeles Times 11/9/10

According to "Habitat for Profanity: Broadcast TV’s Sharp Increase in Foul Language," a study released by PTC [Parents TV Council], there has been an almost 70% jump in bad words on broadcast TV (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and the CW) in the last five years. Most disturbing to the PTC is that the time period showing the biggest gains is not the 10 p.m. hour when more adults are watching, but the 8 p.m and 9 p.m. hours, which attract younger viewers.

Among the words being used more often in prime time are "crap," "hell," "ass" and lot of other terms that are shorthand for breasts, genitals and various sexual acts that we can't print here. There are also a lot more cases of shows using profanities that are intentionally bleeped. The only questionable words (in the eyes of the PTC) that the study is seeing a decline in are "damn" and "bastard."

The study comes in the wake of a decision by the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that called into question the Federal Communications Commission's methods and ability to enforce its indecency rules. The court specifically said the FCC's enforcement of its indecency rules was "unconstitutionally vague" and had a "chilling effect."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Family television? Better think again" by Drew Zahn © 2010 WorldNetDaily 11/12/10

"Our analysis of the first two weeks of this still-new fall television season shows a disturbing trend that shocked even us," said PTC President Tim Winter in a statement. "Profanity is far more frequent and the profanity itself is far harsher than just five years ago. Even worse, the most egregious language is being aired during the timeslots when children are most likely to be in the audience."

"After the Second Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the FCC's congressionally-mandated authority to enforce the broadcast decency law," Winter said, "industry and media pundits predicted a sharp increase in the amount of profanity on television. Sadly, they were correct."

He continued, speaking of the recent increase in obsene language: "Is this a coincidence? Is it an aberration? Or is this exactly the path that broadcasters and the 'creative community' in Hollywood set out when they began launching their legal attacks against the broadcast decency law?"

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

More Filthy Language to Airwaves via Court Ruling

Parental rights advocates, anti-pornography activists and at least one current member of the Federal Communications Commission joined forces Tuesday in condemning a three-judge appeals court panel for declaring unconstitutional the FCC's ban on indecency during prime-time TV hours.

UPDATE 8/27/10: Feds appeal court ruling

-- From "The FCC's decency dilemma" posted at Los Angeles Times 7/14/10

A federal appeals court has delivered another setback to the Federal Communications Commission's six-year crusade against expletives on broadcast television, declaring the commission's latest indecency rule to be unconstitutionally vague. Unless it's overturned on appeal, the ruling will force the FCC to try again to lay out clear boundaries for on-air programming. That's been an exercise in futility for the commission in recent years — not just because it's hard to regulate TV programs without violating the 1st Amendment, but because today's technologies render even constitutionally defensible regulation moot.

The Supreme Court upheld the FCC's procedures last year, leaving the constitutional issues for a later day of reckoning. That day arrived Tuesday, and the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals' opinion was blistering. The three-judge panel found that the rule has chilled protected speech, including live broadcasts and news programs. Broadcasters have "no way of knowing what the FCC will find offensive." More ominously, the court suggested that the way the rules were drawn, the FCC could use the policy to discriminate against programs it didn't like while absolving ones it did.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Court Decision Striking Down Broadcast Indecency Ban is ‘Anti-Family,’ Says FCC Commissioner Copps" by Pete Winn, CNSNews.com Senior Writer/Editor 7/14/10

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps condemned the decision as “anti-family.”

“I am shocked by such an anti-family decision coming out of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals,” Copps said in a statement. “Sadly, the court focused its energies on the purported chilling effect our indecency policy has on broadcasters of indecent programming, and no time focusing on the chilling effect today’s decision will have on the ability of American parents to safeguard the interests of their children.”

Patrick A. Trueman, former chief of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, said the decision by the New York-based court seems “foolish on its face.”

“How is the American public to understand that federal judges don’t know that use of the “F-word” is indecent during prime-time television?” Trueman asked.

“This ruling only increases the public’s belief that government is out of touch with the public and out of step with the U.S. Constitution,” he added.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

More Sex on TV - Mainstream Media Elated

If sex sells, TV programmers are adding inventory to an already humongous sale.

Viewers are about to see full-frontal male nudity, heterosexual, homosexual and group sex, and graphic scenes rarely — if ever — seen on mainstream TV.

-- From "Sex on TV: It's increasingly uncut — and unavoidable" by Gary Strauss, USA TODAY 1/21/10

MTV plans a June launch of The Hard Times of RJ Berger, a scripted comedy about a nerdy 15-year-old whose cool quotient heats up when his anatomical gift is accidentally exposed. And basic-cable network Spike's just-launched raunchy college-sports comedy Blue Mountain State (Tuesdays, 10 ET/PT) showed a masturbating school mascot on the Jan. 12 premiere, while last night's episode featured a scene suggesting oral sex between a coed and jock before the opening credits.

ABC's Cougar Town — which had a memorable scene that implied Courteney Cox's character administering oral sex to her date — premiered last fall. Also new in the past year: HBO's Hung, a dramedy about a well-endowed teacher moonlighting as a prostitute; National Geographic TV's adult-themed documentary series, Taboo; and VH1's titillating Sex Rehab With Dr. Drew.

Critics such as the Parents Television Council decry the mushrooming sexual content. "It's become downright ubiquitous," says council president Tim Winter. "Families are under siege, teenage girls are under siege. You don't know what the cultural impact will be down the road."

. . . Spartacus: Blood and Sand oozes explicit content.

[Spartacus star Lucy] Lawless portrays a conniving social climber who is nude in some scenes, commits adultery in others and uses sex to manipulate frenemies and family. One episode shows Lawless' character and her gladiator-camp-owner husband (John Hannah) manually stimulated by slaves before having sex. Upcoming episodes feature orgies and a gladiator whose large endowment ultimately leads to his downfall.

Noting the potentially off-putting content, the former Xena: Warrior Princess star concedes Spartacus isn't for everyone: "Pretty quickly, the audience has to realize they aren't in Kansas anymore. There will be (viewers) who are truly horrified and switch this off."

To read the entire article, CLICK HERE.

ABC Broadcasts Homosexual/Sadomasochistic Music Video

Openly homosexual former "American Idol" performer Adam Lambert shocked the American Music Awards audience last night by shoving dance team members' faces into his crotch, leading others around on dog leashes and delivering a passionate on-stage kiss to his male keyboard player during the ABC broadcast.


UPDATE 11/24/09: Flooded with complaints, ABC cancels Lambert's followup appearance.

-- From "To the extreme: Adam Lambert's AMA performance shocks" by Chris Richards, Washington Post Staff Writer 11/23/09

Adam Lambert closed Sunday's AMAs -- usually one of the year's sleepiest of awards shows -- with a stunt-laden performance of "For Your Entertainment," the sexed-up title track of his debut album, landing in stores Monday.

"I'm about to turn up the heat," Lambert promised during the song's chorus, after a male dancer simulated oral sex on the "American Idol" alum. Moments later, Lambert grabbed one of his backing musicians by the nape of the neck and gave him an open-mouthed kiss.

With a gaggle of scantily clad dancers writhing in S&M get-ups, the performance at Los Angeles's Nokia Theatre effectively erased the prior events of the evening . . .

Reports say ABC did not edit out any portions of the performance from the West Coast feed. And the network can't say they didn't see it coming. On Friday, Lambert was boasting about leather, chains and copious writhing to come, saying the same thing as he did Sunday night.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "American Music Awards become 'modern Sodom'" © 2009 WorldNetDaily 11/23/09

Lyrics of the song included: "Hold on until it's over. Can you handle what I'm about to do. It's about to get rough with you."

Immediately following the performance, Adam Lambert was the most trending topic on Twitter. Lambert was defiant on his Twitter page, proclaiming, "All hail freedom of expression and artistic integrity. ... fans: I adore u."

ABC producers were unaware of the planned same-sex make-out session, reports Rolling Stone. However, Lambert's performance was advertised as "eye-popping" and something "you'd be talking about tomorrow."

Lambert told Rolling Stone he didn't do anything female performers haven't done on television already – and that if ABC censored any part of his performance for the West Coast rebroadcast, it would amount to "discrimination."

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Disney CEO Defends Nudity and Profanity on Public Airwaves

From "Disney CEO Defends Nudity and Profanity on the Public Airwaves" press release, 3/6/08

At the Walt Disney Shareholders meeting today, the Parents Television Council™ President Tim Winter requested that the company reconsider its lawsuits against the federal government that assert a “right” to air unedited profanity and nudity on its broadcast network – even in front of children. Disney President and CEO Robert Iger thanked Mr. Winter for his comments but defended the company’s decisions by saying that they do not want the government interfering in what they can broadcast.

“Joining a federal lawsuit that asserts a right to use the ‘F-word’ on broadcast television at any time of the day – even in front of children – is a contemptible step for a company named ‘Walt Disney’ to take. Yet when an actress recently used the ‘F-word’ during a live interview on Good Morning America, that was the course of action ABC chose, instead of offering a commitment to make sure it didn’t happen again. I ask that you reconsider suing for the right to air the ‘F-word’ in front of children on the public airwaves,” said Mr. Winter during the meeting.

“When the FCC recently imposed a fine on ABC for airing a scripted primetime drama with a fully-nude woman, this corporation defended the nudity and initiated a legal action against the FCC. Can you imagine Walt Disney airing a naked woman on primetime television, and then suing the FCC when it found the nudity to violate broadcast indecency laws? I urge this company to admit the wrongdoing, and promise not to do it again.

Read the rest of the press release.

Court Rules F**k and S**t OK on Primetime TV

From "U.S. Appeals Court Overrules Federal Broadcasting Ban on Foul Language" by Gudrun Schultz, posted 6/5/07 on LifeSite.com

NEW YORK, June 5, 2007, (LifeSiteNews.com) - Expletives on prime time television don’t violate decency standards, ruled a New York appeals court Monday in a decision that overturned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Reuters reported June 4.

FCC regulators ruled in March 2006 that News Corp.’s Fox television network had violated decency regulations by broadcasting clips with the words “f**k” and “s**t” during family viewing time slots. The Commission did not impose fines in the decision. Regardless, Fox challenged the decision to the appeals court, arguing that the decency standard was inconsistent and violated free speech protections.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, in a divided decision, said the FCC was “arbitrary and capricious” in introducing new decency standards.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he found it “hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ‘s**t’ and ‘f**k’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.”

“If we can’t restrict the use (of the two obscenities) during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want,” Martin said in a statement.

Broadcasters could face fines of up to $325, 000 for violating the decency policy.

Fox officials said they were “very pleased with the court’s decision”, saying “government regulation of content serves no purpose other than to chill artistic expression in violation of the First Amendment.”

“Viewers should be allowed to determine for themselves and their families, through the many parental control technologies available, what is appropriate viewing for their home,” Fox stated.

The appeals court sent the case back to the FCC and ordered the commission to clarify the decency policy. The FCC could now decide to take the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Good News! Network Decisions Influenced by Threat of Higher Indecency Fines

An increase in maximum fines for broadcast indecency seems to be getting the attention of network television executives.

Since Congress raised the maximum fine from $32,500 to $325,000 last year, Pat Trueman with the Alliance Defense Fund said he has noticed more care being taken by networks.

"What you've got is appropriate screening of the material they put out to the public, and that's appropriate," he said. "That's what indecency law was supposed to accomplish."

But some broadcast executives are complaining, saying the higher fines chill freedom of speech. Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS, called them "unfair." He said his network turned away millions of dollars in Super Bowl ads that were deemed unfit for broadcast.

But Trueman pointed out that not all speech is protected.

"It will chill some material," he said, "but not every speech, not every word, not every comment is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution."

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