In a TV landscape that is turning increasingly hostile to family audiences, it is always a relief to find an hour or two each week when you can relax together as a family and enjoy a program that is reliably free of offensive content.
Which is why so many parents feel utterly betrayed when a program billed and promoted as family-friendly catches them off-guard with offensive, indecent content.
Wednesday night millions of families tuned-in to watch 2-hour season premiere of The X Factor on Fox. From the same creators of American Idol which skyrocketed to the top of the ratings charts because of loyal family audiences, families had every reason to believe The X Factor would be similarly family-friendly.
Instead they got a sucker-punch in the form of a grossly inappropriate performance from Geo Godley, who dropped his pants and appeared to expose himself (covered only by a digitally superimposed X) during a song and dance routine.
If you do what contestant Geo Godley did in public, you get arrested. Apparently, if do it on Fox, you get free publicity during prime time. The fact that prolonged, previously taped footage of a contestant dancing nude on the X Factor stage made it to air represents a conscious decision by the producers to put this content in front of families during hours when children are likely to be watching. This incident demonstrates Fox’s contempt for any standard of decency in exchange for free use of the publicly-owned airwaves.
If you agree that this content does not belong on primetime television – particularly on a show that masquerades as family entertainment, take action now by filing a complaint with the FCC.
When the broadcast networks challenged the FCC’s fines for fleeting nudity and fleeting expletives, they assured Americans that if the courts ruled in their favor they wouldn’t suddenly start inserting more and more offensive content just because the courts gave them the “right” to do so…. Yet this week the New York Times notes a marked increase in unbleeped anatomical references during primetime hours on the broadcast networks; and now Fox is deliberately choosing to include footage of a man undressing on stage.
To make matters worse – the episode was rated TV-PG DL – so even if parents were using the V-Chip, that panacea touted by the entertainment industry as a parents’ best ally in protecting their children from inappropriate content, it would not have prevented audiences from seeing the disgraceful performance.
This X Factor striptease is indecent by any contemporary community standard. The FCC needs to hear from you today. Please take action now. TAKE A MOMENT NOW to file your official Indecency Complaint with the FCC, and please, forward this message to everyone in your address book.
Click here for editable form:
https://www.parentstv.org/PTC/action/X-Factor/main.asp
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