Video Music Awards are usually considered for entertainment, but it seems that Parents Television Council never liked it and they hated Sunday’s show too.
“MTV had an opportunity to use its powerful VMA platform to stir a young audience to aspire to something positive and uplifting,” PTC president Tim Winter said on Monday. “Instead they chose to perpetuate blatant sexualization — much of it self-inflicted by the artists — and to celebrate the use of illegal drugs,” he continued. “In the end, the network succeeded in what it wanted to do: stir up controversy without regard to its impact on an entertainment environment that is increasingly toxic for children.”
Television Council (PTC) is a United States-based censorship advocacy group founded by conservative Catholic activist L. Brent Bozell III in 1995. Through publications on its website including staff reviews, (non peer-reviewed) research reports, and web-based newsletters, the Council proclaims television programs or other entertainment products to be beneficial or harmful to the development of children and actively works to ensure broadcasters and content producers conform to the council’s advice.
On its website, PTC states that its mission is to “promote and restore responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry in answer to America’s demand for positive, family-oriented television programming. The PTC believes that the entertainment industry—not only television but also music, movies, and video games as well—and its sponsors share responsibility with parents for children’s television viewing habits.
“Are we surprised that Miley Cyrus exposed herself to millions of viewers, and to more people who will inevitably see the news in the mainstream media? About as surprised as we’ll be if the sun rises in the east tomorrow morning,” Winter continued. “We had hoped she would have proven us wrong and demonstrate her considerable talent as a performer, rather than rely on her own sexuality to entertain the audience.”
Winter carried the allegations and said “It’s also unfortunate that the VMAs were underwritten by the vast majority of Americans who were forced to pay for MTV on their cable bills, but who don’t give a damn about the VMAs.”
“MTV and Cyrus could both be forces for something positive, but tonight’s VMA partners relied on exposing millions of children to graphic, inappropriate and far-too-frequently offensive content,” Winter concluded.
PTC said, “The program is not appropriate for a child as young as 14, though most parents of teens that age would find such a content rating preposterous.”
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