HOLLYWOOD — At the talent agency CAA’s headquarters last week, a panel of notable entertainment officials gathered, not to agonize about the ongoing writers strike that has crippled television production but rather to examine a refreshing issue as old as mass communication itself: the tension between TV’s artistic freedom and social responsibility.
Diane Keaton’s apparently inadvertent use of the f-word during a segment of “Good Morning America” last week served as a timely jumping-off point for the panelists, including former NBC president Warren Littlefield; Olivia Cohen-Cutler, who oversees ABC’s standards and practices department; Shawn Ryan, creator of FX’s “The Shield”; and Tim Winter, head of the Los Angeles-based watchdog group the Parents Television Council.
While promoting her new film “Mad Money” Tuesday morning, Keaton complimented host Diane Sawyer’s beauty and in particular her thick lips, adding that if she had lips like that she wouldn’t have to work on her — throwing in the obscenity — personality. ABC officials apologized for the obscenity, which aired uncensored on many ABC affiliates on the East Coast but was bleeped in later feeds for the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones.
The obscenity prompted Winter to rally his estimated 1.1 million PTC membership, and he urged them to log official complaints with the Federal Communications Commission, which has the power to impose heavy fines on broadcasters that violate decency standards. In a news release issued that day, Winter said America’s families and children had been “sucker punched.” At Wednesday night’s panel, Winter was asked what true harm was done to America by Keaton’s flippant word choice. Winter said: “The Earth didn’t fall off its axis.” But, he added, the verbal mishap is a symptom of a much larger problem of the networks failing to prevent inappropriate material from airing during times when children could be watching.
FCC chairman Kevin Martin said it was unlikely the federal agency would take action against ABC, in view of recent court cases. Last year, in a clear victory for the TV networks, a federal court ruled that broadcasters couldn’t be penalized for impromptu expletives. The Bush administration is appealing that decision to the Supreme Court.
The evening’s hottest moment flared between Winter and Ryan over a PTC-supported proposal to offer consumers a la carte cable choices.
Instead of having to buy multiple channels bundled in one package, the PTC supports legislation that would allow consumers to cherry-pick and pay only for the channels they want to watch.
“Why should I have to pay for FX when all I want is the Disney channel?” argued Winter.
But Ryan, whose award-winning, gritty cop drama “The Shield” broke new ground for language and violence on basic cable, said that proposal would stifle creativity.
“I’d prefer you be honest about this,” Ryan said to Winter, whose nonprofit group originally referred to “The Shield” as “filthy trash” when it debuted. The a la carte proposal is a “backdoor way to censor shows and networks,” Ryan said.
