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Interview With Tim Winter

Aired September 26, 2003 - 14:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the rise in prime-time profanity, we're joined by Tim Winter, the executive director of the Parents Television Council. He's worked at NBC for 15 years in network development. Hello, Tim.
TIM WINTER, PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL: Hello to you both.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think? What can parents do? Is this something that's going to keep getting worse?

WINTER: Unless somebody's looking out for the interests of families across America it's going to get worse. We looked at -- the study we're looking at here on your show was a four-year snapshot from 1998 to 2002. You don't notice these small creeps year to year to year. When you take a snapshot of a four-year period, you can see how dramatically it's been. Almost a doubling, just as offensive in the so-called family hour.

O'BRIEN: When you say creep that word comes to mind quite a bit when you think about network television executives. You have to wonder about the motivation. I suspect there's pressure to sort of match what goes on on premium cable channels like HBO where it's no holds bar, right?

WINTER: Exactly right. I think they're trying to compete with cable on a level playing field. The problem is these are the publicly owned air waves. The networks borrow our air waves from you and me to stream their messages to our families, into our living rooms.

And there's a law in the books that the FCC is supposed to enforce about broadcast decency standard between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely to be watching. And that law goes unenforced.

PHILLIPS: It comes down to competition and money. Because there was a time where you just didn't cross the line. You watched shows like "leave it to Beaver" and all these programs and it was very straight laced.

WINTER: Right. We know that when Sipowicz on "NYPD Blue" does something wrong he's not going to say, Oh, jeepers, Paw, like Opie said to Sheriff Taylor. But at the same time, there has to be somebody watching out for this because if it continues along this path, what is the end? There is no end.

O'BRIEN: You might be upset about it, but the public is watching these programs, and there's no sense -- there's a human -- certainly, these same network executives would stop doing it if the public told them to.

WINTER: I think the public is telling them to because there is no good family fare out there or very, very little good family fare, they're forced to these safe haven cable channels on basic cable. The Disney Channel for instance. Where else can a family turn these days if they want to sit down and watch a show together and not be concerned that they're going to have to dive for the mute button or change the channel?

O'BRIEN: CNN.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Well, people -- I was going to say, they definitely dive for the mute button when they watch us on a regular basis. But, Tim Winter, thank you very much.

WINTER: My pleasure, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 26, 2003 - 14:55   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the rise in prime-time profanity, we're joined by Tim Winter, the executive director of the Parents Television Council. He's worked at NBC for 15 years in network development. Hello, Tim.
TIM WINTER, PARENTS TELEVISION COUNCIL: Hello to you both.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think? What can parents do? Is this something that's going to keep getting worse?

WINTER: Unless somebody's looking out for the interests of families across America it's going to get worse. We looked at -- the study we're looking at here on your show was a four-year snapshot from 1998 to 2002. You don't notice these small creeps year to year to year. When you take a snapshot of a four-year period, you can see how dramatically it's been. Almost a doubling, just as offensive in the so-called family hour.

O'BRIEN: When you say creep that word comes to mind quite a bit when you think about network television executives. You have to wonder about the motivation. I suspect there's pressure to sort of match what goes on on premium cable channels like HBO where it's no holds bar, right?

WINTER: Exactly right. I think they're trying to compete with cable on a level playing field. The problem is these are the publicly owned air waves. The networks borrow our air waves from you and me to stream their messages to our families, into our living rooms.

And there's a law in the books that the FCC is supposed to enforce about broadcast decency standard between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely to be watching. And that law goes unenforced.

PHILLIPS: It comes down to competition and money. Because there was a time where you just didn't cross the line. You watched shows like "leave it to Beaver" and all these programs and it was very straight laced.

WINTER: Right. We know that when Sipowicz on "NYPD Blue" does something wrong he's not going to say, Oh, jeepers, Paw, like Opie said to Sheriff Taylor. But at the same time, there has to be somebody watching out for this because if it continues along this path, what is the end? There is no end.

O'BRIEN: You might be upset about it, but the public is watching these programs, and there's no sense -- there's a human -- certainly, these same network executives would stop doing it if the public told them to.

WINTER: I think the public is telling them to because there is no good family fare out there or very, very little good family fare, they're forced to these safe haven cable channels on basic cable. The Disney Channel for instance. Where else can a family turn these days if they want to sit down and watch a show together and not be concerned that they're going to have to dive for the mute button or change the channel?

O'BRIEN: CNN.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Well, people -- I was going to say, they definitely dive for the mute button when they watch us on a regular basis. But, Tim Winter, thank you very much.

WINTER: My pleasure, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com