Yeah, Right, Whatever

The Parents Television Council watched 171 hours of MTV's Spring Break 2004 coverage. And guess what! They concluded that MTV is a "smut peddler." Uh... tell us something we didn't know.

The PTC found fault with the teen-targeted network based on an examination of 171 hours of programming that aired the week of March 20 last year, during its annual "Spring Break" celebration. The analysis, contained in a report titled "MTV Smut Peddlers," spotted 13 sexual scenes per hour in MTV's reality series, as well as 32 instance of foul language per hour in its music videos... The report declared reality series "Making the Band 2" the channel's most offensive series, chronicling 208 instances of foul language in four total hours.

Some of us remember back in the day (ok... come on... trivia time... what was the first video played on MTV?) when MTV was where you went to watch all the latest music videos. Headbangers Ball was an event. But not anymore. Do they actually play videos anymore?

An MTV spokeswoman said, "It's just unfortunate that Mr. Bozell has yet again attempted to unfairly and unaccurately paint MTV with a brush of irresponsibility around sexual and violent content. The report underestimates young people's level of intellect and sophistication."

No, it's unfortunate that kids are forcefed this stuff say in and day out and we parents are told that it's just "today's culture." Yes, my kids are intelligent, but, I'm happy to say that they have not yet reached that level of sophistication.

When I was eleven, MTV launched and changed the music world. My parents might have looked at the tv funny, but they were not afraid of what I might see. The way things are today, my eleven years won't be watching MTV. If I have my way, they won't be watching it when they're 18. Or twenty-eight. There are just some things they don't need to see.