TVSquad

The other day, Bob mentioned the f-bomb Joe Scarborough accidentally dropped during an edition of Morning Joe on MSNBC (video after the jump). Oops! Apparently, Scarborough didn't even realize he dropped the word -- he thought he said "eff you" instead of the full phrase -- and spent the rest of the show alternately apologizing and having his balls busted by Mika Brzezinski and his guests. Since it was on cable, which is not subject to FCC content regulation, It seemed like the story was closed.

But in yet another "closing the barn door" move, MSNBC has decided to put a seven-second delay on the show, mainly in response to the f-bomb. And guess who was instrumental in influencing that decision? The fun folks at the Parents' Television Council, that's who! They wrote a note to NBCU chief executive Jeff Zucker calling for the delay, and voilà! Delay instituted. The next time I need to collect a check, I should ask the PTC to make the call for me. They seem to get pretty quick results.

According to a study conducted by the Parents Television Council, marital sex is portrayed as boring on television while extra-marital sex is portrayed as "glamorous" and "exciting". The study then goes on to say that those portrayals are wrong, if not downright inaccurate.

"Everybody is having sex on TV except for married couples," PTC president Tim Winter said.

Perhaps television could satisfy the PTC's claims if married couples are shown having wild, animal sex on prime-time. They also seem to forgot that in certain states, gay couples can marry. If gay, married couples are having sex on prime-time television, would that alleviate the concerns of the PTC? I suspect not.

I find any study by the PTC to be somewhat suspect (I recall their rather skewed attack against pro-wrestling a few years ago). While their obvious agenda is to protect children from smut, I believe that their more subtle and honest agenda is to create a social pyramid with the PTC on top.

The CW recently released risqué campaign posters to get new viewers to tune in to its show Gossip Girl. The campaign, titled "OMFG," got fans and the press talking as soon as the sexy posters hit the web and magazines. Two posters were released: the one you see on the right featuring characters Serena and Nate, and another one with Blair and Chuck. Also, a "OMG" version of both posters was used.

This week, the Parents Television Council (PTC) took notice of the ads and declared war against The CW.

Edward Wyatt's New York TImes piece questioned whether NBC crossed the line by broadcasting racy material in the "family hour." On both 30 Rock and The Office, the writers let loose, basically presenting what you might call adult rated moments in what NBC asserts is family time. All I have to say to that is, "What? There's a family hour? Since when?" Apparently, I wasn't the only one caught off guard by the raunchiness of the family hour. The Parents Television Council just today rescinded their praise for NBC's claim that programs in the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time period would target families. PTC is calling NBC's pledge "hypocritical."

NBC and Saturday Night Live are on the naughty list of the Parents Television Council (known henceforth in this post as the PTC). The conservative watchdog organization of people who have nothing better to do are politely asking (OK, angrily demanding) that the network rethink its decision to air an uncensored version of the now famous 'Dick in a Box' skit on its own website as well as YouTube. In this particular skit, Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake liberally use Richard Nixon's nickname several times in a song about the perfect gift to give to your girlfriend.

When the skit originally aired on SNL the word was bleeped out a total of 16 times. However, since Scrooge the FCC has no jurisdiction over the Internet the network was able to leave the online clip uncensored. According to PTC blowhard president Brent Bozell NBC has hit a new low and will stop at nothing to find loopholes to have indecent programming to reach the public. In its defense the network has asked that unauthorized copies of the skit be yanked from sites like YouTube. The network's website airs both a censored and uncensored version of the skit and they have put up a warning saying that the uncensored version contains explicit lyrics.