PTC Urges CBS Affiliates to Pre-empt “Swingtown”

The Parents Television Council strongly urged all CBS affiliates, and particularly those in the Central/Mountain time zones, to pre-empt the raunchy new show, “Swingtown,” which introduces viewers to a world of drugs and sexual experimentation with the premise of open marriage at its core. The first episode, which aired as early as 9:00 pm in the Central/Mountain time zones, featured a ménage à trois, an orgy, and the characters enjoying drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and Quaaludes. “The CBS Television Network appears determined to reinvent itself as a cable network. In so doing they also appear determined to ignore common sense broadcast decency standards. We are asking all CBS affiliates to consider pre-empting this show or to air it later in the evening if they believe the show’s content is not compatible with their community standards of decency,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “CBS began this year by airing ‘Dexter,’ a premium cable network show featuring a serial killer ‘hero,’ and it recently began airing extremely violent and bloody cage fighting matches on a program titled, ‘EliteXC Saturday Night Fights,’ known as mixed martial arts. It’s no coincidence that ‘Dexter’ and ‘EliteXC Saturday Night Fights’ originally aired on premium cable networks, or that ‘Swingtown’ creators intended the program to air on cable. “CBS affiliates should reject the network’s pronounced shift to cable fare. In an agreement expected to be signed today with the FCC, the broadcast networks will publicly agree that their affiliates have the right to pre-empt or reject network programming without fear or reprisal. Though all affiliates currently have the right to pre-empt or reject network programming, CBS affiliates can lean on this agreement for support to pre-empt or reject airing ‘Swingtown.’
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/news/release/2008/0609.asp