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/ 11.24.2009 2:05PM
PTC Urges Members to File FCC Complaints on ABC
LOS ANGELES: The Parents Television Council is calling on
its members to file indecency complaints with the FCC over ABC’s Sunday broadcast
of the “American Music Awards.” The organization deemed the program “tasteless”
and “vulgar.” Members were also ask to complain to ABC, Dick Clark Productions,
and the show’s advertisers.
The PTC took particular umbrage with the now infamous performance of Adam
Lambert (shown rehearsing) a runner-up in an “American Idol” competition who mimed oral sex with
a male dancer and kissed a male member of his band. ABC received 1,500
complaints within a day of the performance, The
Associated Press reported.
“While the costumes and profanity throughout the broadcast were enough to alarm
any reasonable parent, the final performance by Adam Lambert of ‘American Idol’
fame included everything from S&M bondage with the singer leading
leather-clad male performers around on leashes to another dancer simulating
oral sex on Lambert,” the PTC said.
The show aired live at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central time, and was rated TV-14
L. The oral sex scene was edited out of the West Coast broadcast.
“American teenagers--and especially teenaged girls--are literally under siege
by the entertainment media,” PTC President Tim Winter said. “It is outrageous
that children today cannot watch a televised awards program for an industry
that is built squarely on their backs. Teens comprise a huge portion of music
sales, yet this is how they are treated? It is beyond contemptible.”
He said that “ABC and Dick Clark Productions had every reason to know what to
expect, as Lambert himself proclaimed that his performance would be ‘very sexy’
and would include leather and chains. But the producers and the network chose
to bury their heads in the sand.
“The Parents Television Council is calling on its members in areas where the
oral sex scene aired before 10 p.m. to contact the FCC to complain about last
night’s show, which in no way fulfills ABC-affiliated stations’ public interest
obligation for free use of the public broadcast airwaves.
“In addition, every corporate sponsor of the ‘American Music Awards’ can rest
assured that they will hear from the Parents Television Council and its members,”
Winter said. “Advertisers spend billions of dollars on television every year to
influence viewer behavior. Their behavior influence does not cease when the
commercial break is over. Every advertiser will be held accountable for
underwriting the AMA program’s content, including the simulated oral sex scene.”
A subsequent appearance by Lambert on ABC’s “Good Morning America’ was
cancelled in the wake of the controversy.
In a separate matter, there’s been no word on whether the exposure of Chicago
Bears wide receiver Dave Hester’s behind during the game on Sunday night has
drawn any complaints. Eagles cornerback Dimitri Patterson caught Hester by the
pants during a tackle toward the end of the NBC telecast, a move that brought
the receiver’s trousers down.
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