Offensive television content riles Christians

Study finds broadcasters have no "respect” for prime-time hours

Frank Stirk
BC Correspondent
bc@christianweek.org

LANGLEY, BC—When it comes to deciding which prime-time television shows their family can watch together, Bill Strom and his wife are trying to train their children to be both godly and media-literate. But that task is made harder by a steady deluge of ungodly content during those hours.

"You’ve got to do your work," says Strom, who teaches communications at Trinity Western University.

"When they’re really young and in their early teens, you have to be watching a lot of TV with them. You can’t just say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll comment the odd time.’ You really have to sit and watch and comment and interpret and re-cast.”

Strom’s plea for parental involvement is underscored by a new analysis from Focus on the Family Canada of the fare offered in prime time—7 p.m. to 10 p.m.—by the country’s four broadcast networks (CBC, CTV, Citytv and Global).

Over two weeks in November 2002 and again a year later, researchers tallied up the incidents of violence, sexual content, indecent clothing, obscenities, illicit drug use and the promotion of drugs. They found on average nearly 20 "offences” per hour.

This family-unfriendly content is showing up earlier than ever, says Anna Marie White, Focus’ director of family policy.

"A lot of parents think that 7 p.m. is early in the night, it’s going to be fine,” she says. "But if you look at this fall’s lineup, for example, Citytv has just moved Sex in the City to 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. are no longer being respected by a lot of broadcasters.”

The study rated Citytv the worst network in terms of overall offensive content.

But Brad Phillips, vice-president of CHUM Television B.C., which owns Citytv, says that is unlikely to make them do anything differently.

"We’re not about to change our programming based on a study done independent to us,” Phillips told The Province. "There’s an audience for it.”

That audience includes committed churchgoers, says Strom.

"The sad thing is that studies about evangelicals and TV watching [suggest] we tend to watch the same variety of TV fare as non-believers,” he says.

"I watch ‘Everybody Loves Raymond.’ They address some tough issues, they use some rotten language, but it’s really good humour, too. So here I am, a devout believer, and I teach this stuff and critique it, but I watch it.”

White says although Focus encourages parents to write to their MPs about the state of prime-time programming, they should not expect politicians to get involved.

Nor does she believe that most broadcasters can be counted on to improve the situation.

In 2000, for example, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council—a watchdog agency funded by private broadcasters—found nothing wrong in a station airing the film Striptease at 8 p.m. It ruled that despite "the showing of bare breasts,” the movie as a whole was "sufficiently innocent” to justify scheduling it prior to 9 p.m.

"It’s a great example of a complete disregard of community standards,” says White.

"That makes it all the more important for parents to then step in and make sure that they’ve set their own standards for their children,” she adds. "We shouldn’t be looking to the nanny state to take care of them.”

Strom and White agree that Hollywood also needs more Christians in positions of influence like Martha Williamson, the creator and producer of Touched By an Angel.

Strom says most of the communications graduates coming out of schools like Trinity Western more often end up in "safe” faith-based media than in the secular market. Christians hoping to break into Hollywood, he says, must be "sheep in wolves’ clothing.”

"You’ve got to be a godly person who has the cultural savvy of someone who isn’t a believer. They’ll then be able to pitch shows and produce shows that will sell and be morally edifying,” says Strom. "That’s a hard thing.