SpeakSpeak News

LA Weekly has a great piece about the recent religious-Right-driving censorship.

LA Weekly: Post Cards of Intolerance

“Legislation to significantly hike fines for broadcasters airing indecent material will move quickly in the U.S. House of Representatives, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Wednesday. House lawmakers have proposed boosting fines on stations and entertainers to as much as $500,000 per violation, up from the current $32,500. “

The Senate bill would cap the fines at $325,000.

Read more.

Read in USA Today.

NPR’s “Day to Day” on some PBS affiliates’ decision to air “Sugartown!”

Buster-Friendly Affliates:

KQED (San Francisco)
WGBH (Boston)
WMHT (Schenectady, NY)
KOPB (Portland, Oregon): Will air at 10:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m.
WNET (NYC)
KCET (Los Angeles)
KSPS (Spokane)
KBDI (Denver)
TPT (St. Paul, MN)
KVIE (Sacramento)
KCTS (Seattle)
KYVE (Yakima, WA)

If you know of others, please let us know. If you haven’t emailed your affiliate yet – why not?

Buster-Hostile Affiliates:

WETA (D.C.)
KUED (University of Utah)
KBYU (Brigham Young University)
WVIZ (Cleveland)
WEAO (Akron, OH)
WNEO (Youngstown, OH)
LPB (Louisiana Public Broadcasting and affiliates)
WCET (Cincinnati)
WCVN (Lexington, KY)

Buster-Wafflers:
WMPT (Maryland)
WGTE (Toledo)
WBGU (Bowling Green, OH)
WEDU (Tampa)

The PTC’s released a new report on the state of things over at MTV: “The Parents Television Council (PTC), the nation’s most influential advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment, released a new study, ‘MTV Smut Peddlers: Targeting Kids with Sex, Drugs and Alcohol,’ which found that MTV programming contains staggering levels of sex and foul language – far higher than anything found on adult-targeted television.”
Read the rest of the “report” here.
Check out the AP coverage of the story here.

Read it here.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland) has announced that it will air Buster’s “Sugartime!” However, it is airing the program at 10:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m.

“We have had overwhelming response from viewers who want access to this episode. OPB has decided to air this episode in a late-night time slot to allow parents the opportunity to record the program, preview it and determine whether or not they wish their children to view it,” said OPB’s president.

Question: Is it a victory that they’re airing the show? Or, is it a defeat that they’re airing it in a timeslot that is basically inaccessible to children? Are they treating the show with the respect it deserves, or are they likening it to bunny porn?

We want to know what you think.

Kansas City Star: Education chief stands by remarks
“When people turn on the Public Broadcasting System, they expect to get something that is very straight down the line that is educationally oriented,” Spellings said. “And I think that particular topic, of sexuality and lifestyles, are things that need to be introduced by parents and families in their own way and in their own time.”

Have you written to Margaret Spellings yet? Do it now!