Skins was one of the freshest and best new shows aired on cable. It was another example of MTV's cutting edge programming. It only made it one season before being "yanked" due to censorship pressures which were totally undeserved from a secretive and mysterious organization which is very suspect.
The demise of Skins stands as a monument to bad programming choices, oppressive and senseless censorship, and the demise of good original programming on cable and television.
I don't approve of drug use at all, especially among high school students. The same goes for sex among high school students. But it goes on. Pretending it doesn't doesn't do anything. And in this day of the Internet and cable TV, shows about this are abundant, from hard core documentaries to shows which glamorize, educate, and condemn these topics.
Skins was a a fresh, new show on MTV which touched on these subjects and apparently, brought the wrath of a mysterious, secretive organization which calls itself the Parents Television Council, that it was cancelled. See the Press Release.
As a journalist, I tried to contact this Parents Television Council is a secret which raises suspicion that it is controlled, funded, and operated by just another organization which seeks to censor the media such that anything not in accordance with extreme fundamentalist Christian values is banned from the media, regardless of the available restrictions such as parents blocking adult content, warnings on programs, and placing the show on TV late at night.
Let me be clear. I have two young children. They do not watch shows like Skins. I would not let them. As a responsible parent, I know what they watch and they know what they are able to watch. Because I have done my job, they have other interests, in general, then watching TV. They have no interest in drug related dramas or sexually inappropriate shows. If they do develop such an interest, given what is on the Internet, cable TV (such as hardcore pornography and shows like Breaking Bad which is about Methamphetamine), as well as the lyrics in the songs (both current music which is filled with misogynist, drug and violence laced lyrics as well as the "acid rock" I listen to from the Woodstock genre) I had better be aware of what my children listen to, watch, and how they entertain themselves.
I do not need nor want the Parents Television Network to decide what my children are or are not exposed to. Furthermore, I do not trust them. I tried to contact them to discuss their protest, and to find out more about their organization. For an advocacy organization, they were surprisingly hidden and inaccessible. Every advocacy organization I have ever encountered goes to great lengths to make itself public. Most want their message heard. If they are really comprised of "caring parents," then they would gladly have someone speak to another parent, and especially to a journalist/blogger.
It took so much effort to finally get a contact person. After forcing an answer, I found out that the two names I had been given were not even members of this illusive "Parents Television Network." They may not be parents at all. They were employees of an independent Public Relations firm hired by the Parents Television Council.
Even worse, these PR people never returned my telephone calls requesting an interview. It is unheard of for an advocacy group represented by a PR firm, to be impossible to contact for any purpose.
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The demise of Skins stands as a monument to bad programming choices, oppressive and senseless censorship, and the demise of good original programming on cable and television.
I don't approve of drug use at all, especially among high school students. The same goes for sex among high school students. But it goes on. Pretending it doesn't doesn't do anything. And in this day of the Internet and cable TV, shows about this are abundant, from hard core documentaries to shows which glamorize, educate, and condemn these topics.
Skins was a a fresh, new show on MTV which touched on these subjects and apparently, brought the wrath of a mysterious, secretive organization which calls itself the Parents Television Council, that it was cancelled. See the Press Release.
As a journalist, I tried to contact this Parents Television Council is a secret which raises suspicion that it is controlled, funded, and operated by just another organization which seeks to censor the media such that anything not in accordance with extreme fundamentalist Christian values is banned from the media, regardless of the available restrictions such as parents blocking adult content, warnings on programs, and placing the show on TV late at night.
Let me be clear. I have two young children. They do not watch shows like Skins. I would not let them. As a responsible parent, I know what they watch and they know what they are able to watch. Because I have done my job, they have other interests, in general, then watching TV. They have no interest in drug related dramas or sexually inappropriate shows. If they do develop such an interest, given what is on the Internet, cable TV (such as hardcore pornography and shows like Breaking Bad which is about Methamphetamine), as well as the lyrics in the songs (both current music which is filled with misogynist, drug and violence laced lyrics as well as the "acid rock" I listen to from the Woodstock genre) I had better be aware of what my children listen to, watch, and how they entertain themselves.
I do not need nor want the Parents Television Network to decide what my children are or are not exposed to. Furthermore, I do not trust them. I tried to contact them to discuss their protest, and to find out more about their organization. For an advocacy organization, they were surprisingly hidden and inaccessible. Every advocacy organization I have ever encountered goes to great lengths to make itself public. Most want their message heard. If they are really comprised of "caring parents," then they would gladly have someone speak to another parent, and especially to a journalist/blogger.
It took so much effort to finally get a contact person. After forcing an answer, I found out that the two names I had been given were not even members of this illusive "Parents Television Network." They may not be parents at all. They were employees of an independent Public Relations firm hired by the Parents Television Council.
Even worse, these PR people never returned my telephone calls requesting an interview. It is unheard of for an advocacy group represented by a PR firm, to be impossible to contact for any purpose.
Click Here To E-Mail Me
Click Here To Return To the Main Page of My Entertainment Blog
Click Here to Return To The Main Page of My Mail [Political] Blog
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