Action Alert – FCC Seeking Comments on TV Ratings System — Deadline Today!

AFA of PA ACTION ALERT

March 12, 2019

Issue

TV Programming and Objectionable Content — Deadline for Comment is TODAY

Details

Have you ever sat down to watch television with your children or grandchildren and been shocked by the profanity, graphic sex and violence?  Have you ever wondered how the TV rating was listed as appropriate for children?  Well, most of the people who sit on the oversight board and rate the shows work in the entertainment industry!!

Now you can fight back!  The FCC is reevaluating the accuracy of the TV rating system and the responsiveness and effectiveness of the board tasked with oversight of the ratings system.   

Action Steps

Due to a recently passed government spending bill, the FCC must report to Congress within 90 days on the accuracy of TV ratings and the responsiveness of the TV Ratings Oversight Monitoring Board.  The FCC released a “Public Notice” seeking comment on these issues – the deadline to leave a comment is TODAY!  You must use their online form to comment, as they will not simply accept emails.   Here’s what you have to do:

1. Go to the FCC website    On this page, the first box is the Proceeding(s) box — here you must enter  19-41.  Then finish filling in the required fields.
2. Enter the comments in the text box provided.  Click the “Continue to review screen” button.
3. Review your comment and click “Submit.” 

Here are some suggested comments from the Parents Television Council — feel free to use these or portions of these suggestions:

• The ratings are inconsistent and unpredictable! Sometimes the same episode of the same show gets a different rating depending on what network airs it.
• Since the ratings were introduced, G-rated programming has virtually disappeared from primetime, and nothing, in the networks’ opinion, is bad enough to get an MA rating.
• The only ones who have benefitted from the TV ratings –is the entertainment industry. They’ve been pumping more and more graphic sex and violence into America’s living rooms and saying that it’s okay, because “at least we rated it!”
• The entertainment ratings system is controlled by the entertainment industry itself.
• The TV industry has not been up-front about how the oversight process works. When does the TVOMB meet? How often? Where? What do they talk about? What happens when I complain about a show’s rating? Why would I file a complaint when I have no assurance that anything is going to change?