PTC Pans FCC Report

PTC President Tim Winter says reciting questions and problems not enough

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/1/2009 4:19:48 PM

The Parents Television Council was unimpressed with the FCC's report to Congress on content management tools.
 
Reacting to the report, which was essentially a survey of existing and proposed mechanisms and a pledge to collect more information, PTC President Tim Winter said in a statement that simply "reciting questions and problems" does not cut it.
 
“While there are indeed many unknowns, especially with regards to the Internet and new media, there are clearly documented failures surrounding the existing TV content ratings system and the V-chip, and this report fails to address them."
 
As to the FCC's call for more information on how to educate parents better on the V-chip and data on why it is underutilized, Winter says that ship has already sailed. "Having the FCC spend more time trying to call greater attention to inaccurate content ratings is absurd," he said.
 
PTC did give a shout out to Senator Jay Rockefeller (W-WVA), who responded to the report by saying that the result must be more than an information-gathering exercies and that Congress will likely need to step in.
 
Winter called Rockefeller's assessment "spot on."