SPCS

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF COMMUNITY STANDARDS INC.

TV sleaze backlash gathers steam [as community groups express concerns]

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TV sleaze backlash gathers steam
By John Drinnan Sep 17, 2010

Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10674013

Pressure is building on television networks to reduce the amount of sleaze in early prime time. The Broadcasting Standards Authority is expected to announce a decision next week that will set the new tone. There is particular concern about sexual content on early-evening TV.

BSA chief executive Dominic Sheehan said he was aware of concerns and had spoken to two community groups. He will be suggesting that the BSA board commission more research into the issue of how sexuality is presented, including the effect on early prime time – up to the 8.30pm cut-off for adult viewing. He had met the groups – one of which is Family First [a highly respected registered charity]- and they had raised convincing arguments that the BSA needed to develop its research.

There had been issues about the portrayal of sex in the news and in promotions. Sheehan stressed that the BSA acted only on complaints. It cannot act proactively or make subjective decisions. The authority has been created that way to ensure the industry is self-regulating. But self-regulation has gone out the door as the networks chase ratings.

Sheehan would not discuss an upcoming decision that will have an impact on how the BSA treats complaints about good taste and decency.

Television researcher Ruth Zanker has raised alarm bells about the growing levels of sexual content in early prime time, warning that children were being sacrificed on the altar of higher ratings for TV networks. But if the number of complaints are any judge, New Zealanders are happy with sleazy 7pm shows such as Family Guy.

The show regularly features a paedophile character and themes of incest and bestiality. AGB Nielsen surveys suggest an average 25,000 children aged 7 to 14 watch the show at 7pm each weeknight.

Sheehan said the context of shows – like the different approach of cartoons and of an edgy channel like C4 – was taken into account by the BSA.

TV2’s early prime time show Two and a Half Men regularly had a sexual theme. Another sign of the times in 2010 telly? A programme this week has included a promo for a show where a character is sexually attracted to pregnant women.

From the Archives: Concerns raised with BSA by SPCS re TV3 depiction of gratuitous violence. See: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0404/S00048.htm

Sex creeps into early prime time TV

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NZ Herald Friday Sep 3, 2010

A respected children’s media expert is lamenting that kids have been sacrificed to sleaze under New Zealand’s TV standards system. Ruth Zanker is a lecturer at Christchurch Polytechnic and a researcher who has specialised in children and the media. She has noted a change. “There is a general sexualising that has gone on with tabloidisation of media – sex is the easy way of making a hit and it boosts ratings. Children are being sacrificed on the altar of ratings,” she says. Zanker has noted an increasing level of sexuality creeping into early prime time as the TV networks chase ratings. It is a difficult time and parents are either unwilling or unable to police their kids’ viewing. Zanker says New Zealand’s broadcasting laws have created the problem. The Broadcasting Standards Authority acts on complaints. But few complain and the BSA has steered at freedom of speech rather the protection of children, she says.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10670696

[Article highlighted on website by Family First NZ – A well-respected charity registered with the Charities Commission. See www.familyfirst.org.nz and www.charities.govt.nz ]

SPCS congratulates the N.Z.Herald for its weekly "College Herald" articles

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Today there are three articles published in the NZ Herald – by secondary school  students decrying media community standards. They are :-

“Young girls having their innocence stolen” by Paula McDowell, Year 10, of Tauraroa  Area School.

“Overdose of bare flesh corrupts our kids” by Zhan Ye Chen, Year 13, Hamilton Boys’ High School, and

“Ears burn from dirty songs”,  Jacqueline Yee, Year 10, of St. Cuthbert’s College.

As a registered charity SPCS seeks to promote the spiritual and moral welfare of communities and it has as one of its objectives:

“To foster public awareness of the benefits to social, economic and moral welfare of community standards and to encourage constructive debate and discussion in this area.”

The Society applauds the young writers of these articles for boldly expressing views that run counter to the liberal mindset found in much mainstream media. Surely it is a sick mindset that champions the gratuitous depiction of promiscuity, pornography and the pestilence of moral vices involving prostitution, pimping and drug-taking, dished up with a regular deluge of obscenities; all for the sake of public entertainment.

The Society also has another objective “To support responsible freedom of expression that does not injure the public good”.

The Society applauds the three NZ Herald writers for their creativity and for being able to responsibly and freely express their opinions. It applauds the NZ Herald for allowing such views to be expressed in a Society where many officials in government agencies, including Crown entities as well as media commentators and academics, regularly seek to vilify conservatives who wish to point out the negative impact and toxic effect of the tidal wave of immorality that engulfs our community.

The corruption and harm associated with the “overdose of bare flesh” (porn sleaze) and “dirty” (obscene) lyrics, thrust upon the community – kids included – by pornographers and musical ‘artists’, is decried by all those who, like the Society seek to uphold community standards – “encourage self-respect and the dignity of the human person”.

TVNZ fined $2000 by BSA for screening Serial Killer Promo to children

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A promo featuring a serial killer cost TVNZ $2000 after incorrectly being classified as suitable for a general audience. The advertisement for Real Crime: Interview with a Serial Killer had footage of a serial killer saying he had snapped a woman’s neck. It was shown at 5.25 pm on a Wednesday, in a G (general) timeslot. A complainant said her child had been disturbed by the documentary promo. TVNZ said the promo did not contain any violent images. But the BSA found it contained violent themes which would have alarmed child viewers. Source NZPA (The Dominion Post 14/03/10).

Mother backs Bill Hastings paying her 14-year old son to watch rape

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Mother backs TV Research Dominion Post 6/11/08 by Greer McDonald

The mother of a 14-year old who viewed footage of rape and domestic violence for research has defended the study and says children see worse on news broadcasts.

Dawn Bunker, of Wanganui, said she gave consent for her son to take part in the research and believed he didn’t see anything that wasn’t age-appropriate”.

“I feel it was well worthwhile and done professionally, and at no time felt he could not cope with what he was shown. As he himself put it – ‘You see worse on the TV news, Mum.'”

Mrs Bunker was offended by comments from Bob McCoskrie, of lobby group Family First, who said this week that the fact that parents had consented to their children taking part “says something about the parents”.

Mrs Bunker, a mother of three, said parents had to be censors in their own homes. “Some of the things you see on the news, I’ve kicked my kids out of the room – I’m censoring my children myself, I know what they can handle.”

She said chief censor Bill Hastings was doing a good job.

However, a community lobby group has called for he resignations of Mr Hastings and Dominic Sheehan, chief executive of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, for whose agencies the research was conducted.

John Mills, president of the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards, said Mr Hastings showed appalling judgment. “the society is outraged Mr Hastings has defended his breaking of the law by claiming that, because the younger participants gained parental permission before they they took part in the research, then that was okay.”