By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The president of the Parents Television Council (PTC) is calling on concerned citizens to renew the push for cable choice after a scripted stunt on Sunday evening’s MTV Movie Awards Show resulted in a perverse display of partial nudity.
The offensive stunt was performed during the live telecast by scantily clothed actor Sacha Baron Cohen who was lowered from the ceiling to present an award but instead landed in the lap of rapper Eminem. Cohen’s bare buttocks were clearly visible.
It was reported that this was a scripted stunt, meaning MTV knew about it before it aired. In addition to the Cohen stunt, viewers were also exposed to blurred nudity from host Andy Samberg during the show as well as bleeped profanity from a number of actors and presenters.
MTV rates this show as TV-14 (DLSV), meaning they believe this content is suitable for 14 year olds.
“Most parents disapprove of the content on MTV, and rightly so. What happened this weekend at the MTV Movie Awards, was, sadly, all-too typical. Yet MTV survives because those same parents who don’t want their children exposed to MTV’s noxious content are forced to subsidize it as part of product bundle on their monthly cable bill,” said PTC President Tim Winter.
“By our estimates, every cable subscriber in America pays about 80 cents per month for MTV, whether they want the network or not. And while 80 cents may not sound like much money, just do the math: 80 cents per month times 12 months per year times 96 million cable homes equals about a billion dollars per year, every year.
“Consumers should demand a refund from their cable companies for the networks they don’t want but are forced to pay for in order to get the handful of networks that they do want. We should not have to underwrite cable networks like MTV to the tune of a billion dollars per year,” concluded Winter.
To learn more about PTC’s Cable Choice Campaign, visit: www.HowCableShouldBe.com.
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