IT’S OFFICIAL: HOWARD STERN TO JUDGE AMERICA’S GOT TALENT

The decision to replace the departing Piers Morgan with shock jock Howard Stern on NBC’s America’s Got Talent quickly set off the kind of controversy that the producers no doubt expected when they selected him. And Stern immediately made it clear that he will shake things up on the show but will not do anything […]

MIXED SIGNALS FROM HOWARD STERN RE AMERICA’S GOT TALENT

Howard Stern on Monday appeared to dispute a Wall Street Journal report that he was in talks with NBC to replace Piers Morgan on the judging panel of America’s Got Talent. “I am not the next judge. I have no deal with America’s Got Talent,” he said on his satellite radio show. But was, he […]

CBS WINS “NIPPLEGATE” CASE AGAIN

For a second time, a federal appeals court has tossed out the $550,000 fine that the FCC meted out to CBS stations that aired the infamous “wardrobe malfunction” involving Janet Jackson during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. In a 2-1 ruling the court said that the FCC had failed to notify broadcasters that it […]

PARENTS: CARTOONS ARE SEXUALLY CHARGED

According to the conservative Parents Television Council, which frequently spearheads protests against sexual references on television, children are instinctively drawn to cartoons and, in flipping channels, often land on those that are aimed at adults. In a study released on Tuesday, the PTC particularly criticized two cable networks, Adult Swim and the Cartoon Network, for […]

HIGH COURT TO CONSIDER FCC OBSCENITY RULES

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a federal appellate court’s decision that appeared to nullify FCC’s rules on indecent broadcasts. It indicated that its consideration will be limited to whether the commission’s “indecency-enforcement regime violates the First or Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” Last year a lower court appeared to toss […]

TITLE OF ABC PILOT DRAWS WRATH OF PTC

ABC may have been asking for trouble — courting it even — by titling the pilot for an upcoming sitcom Good Christian Bitches. If they were, they struck gold on Wednesday when the Parents Television Council urged its million-strong members to sign a petition protesting the title. “ABC’s decision is not only an affront to […]

CONTROVERSY FAILS TO BOOST RATINGS FOR MTV’S SKINS

All of that controversy over MTV’s racy new teen drama Skins did not translate into a big ratings surge for its second episode on Monday. In fact, ratings dropped by more than 50 percent — to 1.6 million from 3.26 million for its premiere. On Tuesday, the Parents Television Council, which had organized a protest […]

COURT OVERTURNS FCC INDECENCY FINE

In yet another blow to conservative parents’ groups and religious organizations battling what they consider indecent content on broadcast television, a federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a $1.2 million fine that the Federal Communications Commission had imposed following ABC’s 2003 telecast of an NYPD Blue episode that included a brief shot of a woman’s […]

ANTI-INDECENCY GROUP UNDER FIRE

The Parents Television Council, which for years has spearheaded protests against allegedly indecent television programming, has found itself, in the words of the New York Times, “damaged, defanged by court challenges to the FCC’s hard-line position, by its own dwindling finances and by internal troubles that resulted in its accusing a former senior employee of […]

GLEE STAR RESPONDS TO PTC’S CONDEMNATION OF GQ SPREAD

Dianna Agron, a co-star of Fox’s Glee, has responded to criticism by the conservative media watchdog Parents Television Council of a sexy photo spread in GQ magazine featuring her and fellow co-stars Lea Michele and Cory Monteith. In a statement on Tuesday, PTC President Tim Winter said, “It is disturbing that GQ, which is explicitly […]

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