parents television council

MTV's controversial new teen drama Skins won't set any of its young viewers on the road to ruin, and it isn't pornographic. It is in bad taste, and MTV must have known would offend some audiences. Still, with 3.26 million viewers for its debut, Viacom is getting exactly what it wanted from the show -- publicity and viewers.

A conservative TV watchdog group wants consumers to consider patronizing companies that advertise on family-friendly television shows this shopping season, rather than those that buy commercials on racier programs, but price is still likely to be the biggest influence on holiday shoppers.

Despite Charlie Sheen's latest offscreen misbehavior, advertisers are sticking with his show, Two and a Half Men. It may be that the show's numbers -- it draws 15.2 million viewers -- are just too good to walk away from.

I'm beginning to suspect the Parents Television Council is actually a front group controlled by the entertainment industry. The group, which calls itself "the nation's most influential advocacy organization," has trained its rhetorical cannons on The CW Network, which has been promoting an upcoming...

Here's an idea for Seth MacFarlane, creator of the raunchy cartoon Family Guy on News Corp. (NWS)'s Fox Network: Take the script for the Nov. 8 episode that Microsoft just backed out of as sole sponsor. Find any mention of "Windows 7," cross it out with a pencil, and replace the term with the...