PTC’s New Challenge: a Rival Conservative Advocacy Group

Libertarian TV Watch tries to shoot down the socially conservative, formerly high-flying Parents TV Council on the day it releases one of its big finger-wagging studies

Socially conservative media advocacy just isn't as easy pull off as it was several years ago, when the FCC was imposing huge indecency-related fines on CBS and News Corp.

For the struggling Parents TV Council, this is especially true.

On Tuesday, the group released its latest finger-wagging study of the TV business, which pointedly noted that bad language is up 70 percent in broadcast prime-time.

But not only is the PTC dealing with a series of court challenges, TV networks that are not afraid of it anymore (can you imagine a show called $#*! My Dad Says"? in 2004, post-Janet Jackson Boobgate?) and a more intractable Federal Communications Commission.

The group — which was influential a few years back when the FCC was handing out those big fines — also has rival conservative advocacy groups to deal with. That includes TV Watch, a libertarian watchdog which sent out its own statement to the media Tuesday.  

Header: "Parents are the best judge of appropriate content — all others suspect."

Referencing a recent New York Times story that outlines the PTC's recent troubles, the TV Watch statement expresses a conservative ideology that's probably a little more in vogue right now than social conservativism: anti-government sentiment.

"TV Watch's position is that in the third of households with children, parents should make the decisions about children’s viewing and enforce those decisions with available technology if they choose as all others are suspect," the Media Watch statement reads.

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