TV Watch Launches

TV Watch, a coalition designed to combat increasing attempts to censor broadcast television, radio, and cable programming, launched today. I've signed on as a member. This story from Reuters explains why the coalition was formed:

Most Americans believe that television networks should warn them about potentially unsavory content on their shows but disagree about whether to ban them from the air, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

About 90 percent strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that there should be advisories and ratings about potentially offensive content they may want to avoid, according to the survey done by pollsters Frank Luntz and Peter Hart.

But while 48 percent either strongly or somewhat agreed that television stations should not air such shows, 50 percent either somewhat disagreed or strongly disagreed, it said.

The poll is being issued by a new coalition, TV Watch, formed to counter a crackdown on what is aired on broadcast radio and television or cable and satellite services.

A large majority, 85 percent, said they preferred parents to exercise control over what they watch instead of the government, the survey of 1,002 people in March showed. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Additionally, 89 percent said they believed parents would do a better job protecting their children from indecent material on television and radio, versus 10 percent who said the government would better protect them.

"We have formed TV Watch to speak for the majority of Americans whose views are unrepresented in the debate over rising government regulation of television programing and who want to protect their favorite shows from being forced off the air," said Jim Dyke, executive director of the coalition.

The group includes media companies as well as organizations that may not always see eye to eye on policy issues, such as the pro-business lobby U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Creative Voices in Media, which seeks media independence.

Parents groups, regulators and lawmakers have been pushing the media industry to tone down programing, offer choices to avoid it, or provide sufficient warnings about the content. One parents' group has criticized TV ratings as meaningless.

Television and radio broadcasters are prohibited from airing obscene material and can only air indecent content, like sexually explicit or profanity-laden shows, late at night when children are less likely to be in the audience.

After several headline-grabbing incidents like pop singer Janet Jackson's exposed breast on television, the Federal Communications Commission has increased pressure on broadcasters to clean up their act. The agency proposed fines or reached settlements totaling $7.9 million last year.

Lawmakers want to hike fines for broadcasting indecent content to as much as $500,000 per violation. Some in Congress are also seeking to apply the decency limits to subscription television and radio services.