The Parents Television Council Uncensored: An Inside Look at the Watchdog of the Public Airwaves And the War on Indecency With Its President, Tim Winter

Authors

Clay Calvert
Robert D. Richards

Abstract

This article addresses the Federal Communication Commission's ("FCC") controversial and contested regulation of indecency on the broadcast airwaves. It pivots on an exclusive in-person interview conducted by the authors in Los Angeles in June 2010 with Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council ("PTC"). The PTC is perhaps the most vociferous-and controversial-public watchdog on broadcast indecency, with its members filing thousands and thousands of indecency complaints with the FCC each year. The article is especially timely because, in July 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Fox Television Stations v. FCC declared the FCC's indecency policy unconstitutional for being unduly vague. Winter provides his views here not only about the FCC's regulation of indecency, but also on the PTC's actions, efforts, and strategies in its attempts to make broadcast content more family friendly. Furthermore, he addresses the topic of whether the FCC should also regulate violent content on the airwaves.

Recommended Citation

Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards, The Parents Television Council Uncensored: An Inside Look at the Watchdog of the Public Airwaves And the War on Indecency With Its President, Tim Winter, 33 UC Law SF Comm. & Ent. L.J. 293 (2011).
Available at: https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_comm_ent_law_journal/vol33/iss3/1