LOS ANGELES: The Parents Television Council is calling on its members to file indecency complaints with the FCC over ABC’s Sunday broadcast of the “American Music Awards.” The organization deemed the program “tasteless” and “vulgar.” Members were also ask to complain to ABC, Dick Clark Productions, and the show’s advertisers.
The PTC took particular umbrage with the now infamous performance of Adam Lambert (shown rehearsing) a runner-up in an “American Idol” competition who mimed oral sex with a male dancer and kissed a male member of his band. ABC received 1,500 complaints within a day of the performance, The Associated Press reported.
“While the costumes and profanity throughout the broadcast were enough to alarm any reasonable parent, the final performance by Adam Lambert of ‘American Idol’ fame included everything from S&M bondage with the singer leading leather-clad male performers around on leashes to another dancer simulating oral sex on Lambert,” the PTC said.
The show aired live at 8 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. Central time, and was rated TV-14 L. The oral sex scene was edited out of the West Coast broadcast.
“American teenagers--and especially teenaged girls--are literally under siege by the entertainment media,” PTC President Tim Winter said. “It is outrageous that children today cannot watch a televised awards program for an industry that is built squarely on their backs. Teens comprise a huge portion of music sales, yet this is how they are treated? It is beyond contemptible.”
He said that “ABC and Dick Clark Productions had every reason to know what to expect, as Lambert himself proclaimed that his performance would be ‘very sexy’ and would include leather and chains. But the producers and the network chose to bury their heads in the sand.
“The Parents Television Council is calling on its members in areas where the oral sex scene aired before 10 p.m. to contact the FCC to complain about last night’s show, which in no way fulfills ABC-affiliated stations’ public interest obligation for free use of the public broadcast airwaves.
“In addition, every corporate sponsor of the ‘American Music Awards’ can rest assured that they will hear from the Parents Television Council and its members,” Winter said. “Advertisers spend billions of dollars on television every year to influence viewer behavior. Their behavior influence does not cease when the commercial break is over. Every advertiser will be held accountable for underwriting the AMA program’s content, including the simulated oral sex scene.”
A subsequent appearance by Lambert on ABC’s “Good Morning America’ was cancelled in the wake of the controversy.
In a separate matter, there’s been no word on whether the exposure of Chicago Bears wide receiver Dave Hester’s behind during the game on Sunday night has drawn any complaints. Eagles cornerback Dimitri Patterson caught Hester by the pants during a tackle toward the end of the NBC telecast, a move that brought the receiver’s trousers down.
