A spokeswoman for MTV: Music Television defended the network and its advertisers in the wake of a Parent Television Council report Tuesday that claimed that MTV exposes children to excessive amounts of sex, drugs and alcohol.
PTC president Brent Bozell said an analysis of MTV programming during a week in March 2004 showed that the channel had “staggering levels of sex and foul language, far higher than one would find on prime broadcast television aimed at adults.”
MTV spokeswoman Jeannie Kedas said the PTC study was unfair and ignored the network’s effort to raise political awareness among young viewers through campaigns like “Choose or Lose.”
“That is an unfair and inaccurate depiction of MTV, and it is unfortunate that Mr. Bozell has attempted to unfairly paint MTV with that brush of responsibility,” Kedas said.
The PTC said an analysis of 171 hours of MTV programming revealed “1,548 sexual scenes containing 3,056 depictions of sex or various forms of nudity and 2,881 verbal sexual references.”
Bozell called on the cable industry to give consumers the option to buy channels a la carte so that they do not have to purchase MTV if they think the programming is offensive and inappropriate for children.
The PTC, Bozell said, planned to use the report to target MTV advertisers, such as Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. and Diageo plc, to put financial pressure on the cable network.
“If it weren’t for their money, this garbage wouldn’t be on television,” he added. “We are not going to warn that we are going to embarrass them. We are going to embarrass them.”
Kedas said MTV could withstand PTC’s pressure. “We have great partnerships with a lot of advertisers, they know what the MTV brand stands for and we’re responsible programmers,” she added.
