PTC Press Tour: Next Stop, Fresno!
The PTC PR parade has marched through Fresno, CA.
As they did in Florida last week, the PTC has announced the appointment of a chapter president in the conservative Central Valley city.
The resulting newspaper report is – we’re used to this by now – glowing. (Search through the piece for a non-PTC opinion. Go on. I dare you.)
Pastor Harry Davies of the Family Home Church is one member who would like to “clean up the airwaves and get rid of a lot of the trash we have to put up with. In general, our society, religiously, is going bankrupt,” he said. “Our morals are going lower and lower, and these generations coming up think nothing of sex.”
Anywho, Mike Burton, Fresno chapter president, reports that his goals include taking on Marriott hotels to “stop them from offering pay-per-view pornography,” and taking on “local TV networks in an effort to halt mature-rated advertisements during prime time.” The PTC will also staff a booth at the local farmers’ market.
You know what to do. Speak up! Let the Clovis Independent know that the PTC doesn’t speak for you.
Once you’ve sent your letter, please consider posting it on our site for others to read.
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My letter:
Dear editor,
Your article about the new Fresno/Clovis Parents Television Council was nothing more than one-sided hucksterism.
The current debate over television indecency is a major news story, but it is a story with multiple viewpoints. You neglected to acknowledge even the EXISTENCE of other opinions, which is quite a coup for the politically motivated Parents Television Council.
The PTC claims to speak for all American families. It does not. I am in control of the television content that makes it into my household. I do not need the PTC to make those decisions for me. I do not appreciate their attempts to become our nation’s de facto censorship board.
They do not speak for me. They do not speak for American culture.
The article you published was not “journalism.” It was shameful “public relations.”
Your readers – and the participants in this debate – deserve better.
Sincerely,
Amanda Toering
Comment by Amanda Toering — 4/18/2005 @ 9:45 am
My letter to Clovis Independent:
The article you printed on the Parents Television Council was very
one-sided and uninformative. Amid the author’s fawning, completely
favorable look at the PTC, she did not mention what a homophobic, theocratic,
pro-censorship group it really is- a group that is very much part of a
larger religious right movement that is gaining an appaling amount of
ground in its goal to control, supervise, and judge every last aspect of
our private lives. Don’t believe me? Ask the Schiavo family.
I am getting tired of now even local media having such a strong bias
towards the bigot, pro-censorship far-right-wing. Why can’t the PTC
crowd just turn off the shows they don’t like? I don’t let my family watch
immoral shows that have bad influences on children (such as The 700
Club and The O’Reilly Factor) but I recognize other people’s right to
watch them.
Comment by Tom Soppe — 4/18/2005 @ 10:38 am
My letter:
I write to urge you to provide equal time to the other side of the “indecency” issue. The PTC is a political organisation whose primary platforms are homophobia, theocracy and massively increased government (read: church) control of private citizens and their private lives.
When they claim to be concerned with moral issues, they are lying. Where is the moral problem with showing a family with same-sex parents on television? What is immoral about celebrating the legacy of openness and frank investigation into human sexuality left to us by pioneering researcher Alfred Kinsey?
When they claim to oppose indecency, they are lying. Was it not indecent when Ann Coulter proposed a conquer-and-convert program for the Middle East? Which was more indecent, Nicolette Sheridan’s naked back or the incessant beer commercials during the Superbowl?
When they claim to advocate for children, they are both lying and insulting parents everywhere whose own judgement is the only protection their children need from the world. I have yet to see a television which lacks an “off” button.
The PTC does not speak for parents, decent ordinary Americans, or me. They are ruthless proponents of a narrow, bigoted and extreme right-wing political program. Your recent article on the new Fresno/Clovis chapter was entirely one-sided, and I write to urge you to redress this imbalance. It is, after all, your freedom to print what you will that the PTC and their ilk wish to take away.
Comment by sennoma — 4/18/2005 @ 10:58 am
Dear editor,
I just read your glowing, and totally biased, piece on the new PTC chapter in your area and was amazed that you did not quote a single opposing viewpoint.
Mr. Burton said, “Adolescents need positive role models and there are none on TV.” Excuse me? Perhaps he means there are no shows involving rabid teen-aged fundamentalist? Who is he to decide what is a proper role model for my child?
And Pastor Davies, who states that he would like to “clean up the airwaves and get rid of a lot of the trash we have to put up with. In general, our society, religiously, is going bankrupt …” might need to spend a little more time reading his Bible - especially the sections in Matthew 6, where Jesus speaks about hypocritical Pharasees, since he seems to feel that because there isn’t a Christian on every street corner praying out loud, we are “going bankrupt” as a nation.
And if Mr. Burton doesn’t want to watch pornography at the Marriott next time he takes a room there, tell him not to order it.
I personally find pornography and much of what is currently on TV, silly and vulgar. But I learned quite early in life how to work the channel changer and off buttons on a Television set - even taught my own children that skill. And some of the best discussions my children and I had were over why I turned a particular program OFF.
Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are cherished RIGHTS in this country - all the more fragile at this time because of an increasing number of assaults by groups like this.
PTC states it is an advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment. My question is, who will protect my and my children’s rights from thought police like PTC?
Sincerely,
Comment by Linda Easley — 4/18/2005 @ 11:35 am
my basic comment to the editor was, these are our air waves too. we pay monthly for them, and no one has a right to take our first amendment away. i also told them shame on all of them for now going after cookie monster. they also have to learn to compromise or pay all our monthly bills, which we’ll gladly send to them.
Comment by barbara mooney — 4/18/2005 @ 1:01 pm
Dear Editor,
We are a free country. Why do we even have to go through this? My tv came equipped with an on-off switch and a channel changer. If you do not like the content of a show then change it. I do not want to be controlled by what you or the government consider indecent. I can have control of my own tv.
Leave the hotel chains alone. This is why i do not like one political party to have to much power. The republicans are abusing it. Already the christian right with its new found power is using it to threaten people. What’s next them going after people working on sunday?
Comment by Peter Barron — 4/18/2005 @ 3:38 pm
Dear editor,
I really believe that if the trend, whereby a group of Right Wing, bigoted, fanatical, war mongering, religous storm troopers, who demand the enforcement of selective biblical passage that fit their “political agenda” continues, within twenty years, America as we know it will cease to exist.
Please note that ALL of those descriptive adjectives are accurate and fit their description.
America got along without the infliction of their policy changes being shoved down our throats for more than two-hundred years and grew and prospered into a great nation.
There still exists a silent majority who do not believe that ever single little display of flesh, off color word or spicy scene are bad things. We’re mature enough to enjoy such things without believing others must enjoy them and adult enough to know some others actually might not enjoy them. But, we’re also intelligent enough to know how to change a channel or turn off a radio or television.
If I and the rest of the silent majorty can figure out how to manipulate such complicated apparatus, so can the PTC and then they can stop shoving their interests down the throat America.
If the PTC really wants to promote something that would be good for America and would help it’s citizens, why don’t they promote the removal of tax exempt status for ALL churches, religous organizations and ALL corporations? Make them pay taxes at the same tax rate that the citizens of this nation have for decades. Cut out ALL loopholes. No special treatment. Any caught cheating on their taxes, same penelty as every one else has been subjected to. If corporations and churches were taxed this way, the taxes on the rest of us could be reduced tremendously.
So, if the PTC REALLY wants to do something good for America and it’s citizens, something for their children to be proud of, there’s a projuct worth their effort.
Comment by Richard Bennett — 4/18/2005 @ 4:41 pm
Dear editor,
The reason why pornography is a multi-million business is that millions of people want to watch it. Nobody is forcing them to. It’s their money, so let them do what they want with it in the privacy of their hotel rooms and homes! The PTC is a fringe minority group that needs to stop telling the majority what to do.
Comment by Lynne Schultz — 4/18/2005 @ 8:01 pm