The Parents Television Council is upset that the MTV Video Music Awards are not as wholesome as the Kid’s Choice awards. The censorship advocacy group has released a letter to MTV warning them to tone down this year’s VMAs and, yes, it is possible that they are confused as to who they’re talking to.
As seen via The Hollywood Reporter, the letter reads, in part:
Parents and families around the country have had ample reason to be concerned about the material distributed and promoted by MTV over the years, particularly during MTV’s original programming.
Yeah, no shit. Sexually explicit and inappropriate behavior is the fabric of this network. There’s nothing new here and it certainly isn’t restricted to the Video Music Awards.
The PTC specifically calls out last year’s Miley Cyrus/Robin Thicke debacle (jeez, that was a whole year ago?) as an example of what they don’t want to see. They are also upset with MTV’s decision to give the program a TV-14 rating.
Even more troubling was the fact that MTV still applied a TV-14 rating to the program, despite other adult-oriented performances and advertising messages. Such a rating was simply unacceptable to the families who depend on the television ratings system to be applied accurately and to the millions of families whose children are marketed to by MTV. The 2013 VMAs were a public relations kerfuffle for your network that I feel certain you will not wish to repeat.”
Clearly they know nothing about MTV or television. “Public relations kerfuffle” translates into “ratings” which equals “money” which turns out to be “the whole fucking point.”
I understand that those ratings might be used by parents to determine what shows their children can watch — although common sense and context clues might helpful also — but perhaps they shouldn’t be relying on them when it comes to MTV.
Why not just make the logical jump that if some crazy shit went down last year, it’s probably going to go down this year? Hell, a casual stroll through the history of the VMAs is all you need to confirm that.
In 1984 at the first ever VMAs, Madonna writhed and touched herself as she performed “Like A Virgin.” Right from the very beginning, the VMAs let you know what they were all about. In 1991, Prince wore a costume with his butt cheeks hanging out. In 2000, Britney Spears wore that nude-but-not-really outfit.
Some of he biggest moments in VMA history have come from Madonna, Britney Spears and Eminem. That should tell you all you need to know. In 2004, Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera made out with each other. In 2009, a drunk Kanye West accosted Taylor Swift. Don’t you think, over the course of 30 years, if MTV had wanted to curb this behavior they could have?
Plus, have you ever seen what people wear to the VMAs?
The MTV Video Music Awards are not for the consumption of children. As a parent, if you allow your 14-year-old to watch the show, know that they’ve probably seen worse in the very music videos the show is honoring.
The PTC’s letter also asked MTV to commit to a list of proactive steps in order to assure parents that this year’s show will be more appropriate. To which I say: good luck with that.
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