AS I SEE IT readers are welcome and encouraged, given recent events concerning the movement to stop the Parents Television Council, to circulate the following information anywhere and everywhere:

For those seeking a website that will provide you with news and information on the Parents Television Council, please visit Wrestling Fans Against Censorship for information relating to the effort to fight the PTC.

For those of you who visited the PTCSucks.com message board, the WFAC site also has a message board.

We have changed to a different message board, as per the requests of many who have said that they prefer a different, easier style. You can access the new WFAC message board at this link, or access it from the WFAC site through the "Visit Our Message Board" icon, which can be found on the bar down the left side of the WFAC main page.

We will also be adding many new volunteers to help us broaden what we're able to do. If you'd like to help in any way, please feel free to e-mail the co-webmaster of Wrestling Fans Against Censorship at spankwilly69@hotmail.com

This week....they're at it again...

Those folks who think the world is made up of the adventures of Fluffy Bunny and Sammy Squirrel... who want to tell adults and to tell parents what they should watch and can watch because some child might watch content that might show a world not to their personal liking....the Parents Television Council.

Some of their most recent obsessive monologues have been over the Eddie Guerrero-Chyna-Playboy storyline.

Here's an excerpt from a recent "Action Alert":

"Smackdown! Pedals Pornography To Kids

Sex moved to center stage during the September 14 WWF Smackdown! as viewers were treated to several plugs for an upcoming issue of Playboy featuring a female wrestler named Chyna on the cover and in a pictorial.

In one segment of the episode, Chyna's boyfriend was shown at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion attempting to stop the issue from going to print, but he only managed to tell the audience when it was coming out. In addition, several times during the night we were told the date the magazine would be on the stands, just in case viewers wanted to pick it up."

Many people are surprised that Mr. Bozell didn't expire of a stroke after the placards were placed on opposite turnbuckles with the cover of the Playboy containing Joanie Lauer's pictorial; or at least grace us all with his usual pseudo-moralistic prose. Then again, there's always Bozell's next column.

Wonder what he'll think of the edited versions of her pictorial that were aired on WWF television?

It's no accident that "Steven Richards" and his "Right to Censor" group are always talking about doing away with "scantily clad women". From reading L. Brent Bozell's columns, it seems he is at least as obsessed with sex as he believes the American people to be.

Well...I'll repeat what I've said before...I think it's about time that Vince McMahon takes L. Brent Bozell's over-opinionated, slanderous, libelous ass to court. While even the PTC is entitled to free speech protection; libel, slander and defamation of character aren't protected speech. Not even for the PTC.

Why do I say this?

Between the PTC's repeated claims that Smackdown is "killing people" because of the actions of two children...and two independent workers who died in the ring... I think Vince McMahon has gone past the point where he should be satisfied with just satirizing the PTC through
"Right to Censor".

It's time for WWFE to stand up as a corporation and deal with Mr. Bozell head on. It's time to put the PTC out of business, through citing the Parents Television Council's reckless behavior through the machinery of the American legal system.

If Bozell's obsession about sex weren't embarrassing enough, how about his obsession with violence?

If you wish to read Bozell's September 19th column on the FTC Report in full, you can do so at this link.

But here are excerpts of it:

"Although no one should be at all surprised by the report’s salient finding – that this marketing is more the rule than the exception -- its details still manage to startle here and there. Much of this effect derives from the FTC’s access to corporate marketing memoranda. It proves just how deliberate, and just how disingenuous, Hollywood really is...."

Wrong and wrong. Ads for "Perfect Dark" have appeared on prime time television since May; moreover, they’ve run on several shows which appeal to children, including UPN’s 'WWF Smackdown!' and 'Moesha' and the WB’s 'Felicity.'"

What concerns me is that a logical next step in Bozell's thought patterns would be to mention the obvious fact that the WWF, as well as WCW and ECW, advertises for PPVs with more adult content and ratings than their typical TV fare. Without the ability to advertise those PPVs on their own TV shows, these PPVs might well not be financially viable options (which might very well be Mr. Bozell's idea).

"The report says that 'MTV, with its core demographic of 12-24, was the largest advertising cable outlet for almost every motion picture the Commission examined…Indeed, the younger the target audience, the more the studios tended to advertise on MTV.' So on MTV, if it’s not a brainless, vulgar video or smut like 'Undressed,' it’s a promotion for a film you would refuse to allow your seventh-grader to see. Is there much doubt anymore that MTV is the most obnoxious basic-cable channel in America?"



It's probably a coincidence that MTV is carrying Sunday Night Heat beginning this weekend. It'll be another reason for the Media Research Center family to continue on that front of their "cultural war".

Does L. Brent Bozell realistically think that all television is suddenly going to become like PAX TV or FOX Family Channel? As a staunch capitalist, Mr. Bozell ought to realize that any company not producing a economically profitable product or service will cease to exist.

The fact of the matter is that in both cases, ratings are anemic for PAX TV; despite the ability of Bud Paxson to advertise PAX TV and its programming widely, not to mention PAX TV's alliance with NBC. Ratings have also dropped significantly with FOX Family Channel, since FOX purchased the network from Pat Robertson.

If there is a market for this programming (something I'd have no objection to at all, since the whole premise of our movement is that people should have choices, including "family programming"), where are the viewers for it?

More importantly, Americans should be concerned about a country where others will tell them what is good for them. If 50% of the Bozell-inspired proposals for censorship of entertainment are ever written into Federal, state and local legislation and actually passed... the satirical portrayal of "Steven Richards" telling crowds that "Right To Censor" knows what's could for them might not be so satirical after all.

One last excerpt:

"...To which, according to the New York Times, 'Gore aides and spokesmen for the entertainment executives emphasized that Mr. Gore and [running mate Joseph] Lieberman had criticized only the industry’s marketing techniques, not the content of its products.' (Emphasis mine.) If we are to accept this – and how can we accept this? – claptrap, we must conclude that Gore favors ultraviolence. Where, oh where, are the media referees on this one?"

Um...Mr. Bozell, do you honestly think we don't know whose Advisory Board Senator Lieberman is on? Who do you think you're fooling when you "criticize" Senator Lieberman?

But here's an even more asinine thought: "Gore favors ultraviolence"...

Yeah, right.

I can just see Al and Tipper hanging out in Sewell, NJ at a Combat Zone Wrestling show, or out in Kentucky at the "Creators House of Hardcore" for an IWA-Mid South show. No doubt Al will just love looking at Ian Rotten's gig marks; or helping pick out the glass from Lobo's back.

If you believe that, I have some land in Nevada to sell you, right downwind from the Nevada Test Site.

Given the fact that the PTC isn't going away, and is becoming more extreme in its political viewpoint versus traditional American democracy and the right of individualism; and in light of the Senate Commerce Committee vote recently on SB 876, the need for any American readers who haven't registered to vote is crucial.

The deadline to register will be October 7th in most states and localities.

If you are not one of those registered voters, and are an American citizen, and if you are 18 years old, you can register online at Rock The Vote, one of the efforts WWFVote.com is working with. Rock The Vote, located at this link.

You have a weapon to hold over the head of each and very one of those Senators listed above who would vote to effectively take away your freedom to watch or listen to the forms of entertainment that you choose...if you can tell them you're a registered voter.

Keep in mind that registering to vote does not mean one has to choose the lesser of two evils. Depending on one's personal political viewpoint, there are electoral options outside of the Democratic and Republican parties.

This column, as well as the Wrestling Fans Against Censorship PTC Watch daily updates will be featuring information from the Smackdown Your Vote partners on the positions of candidates during October, so that our American readers can make informed choices when they go into the voting booth on Election Day, November 6th.

Finally...there have been some people recently on some of the sites that carry AS I SEE IT who have complained that they are "tired" of hearing about the PTC.

Frankly, I'm tired of having to write about it. I'd rather be playing armchair booker like everyone else.

But for those readers who are "tired" of hearing about the PTC....you'd better understand something. We don't have the luxury of sitting by and "just being fans". If we sit by, we won't have much to be fans of anymore.

If the PTC gets its way, the wrestling you see will resemble the Titan Toon Adventures of the early 1980s at its worst. Any storyline with the least bit of adult content will be gone, either through PTC pressure or various types of Federal legislation, some already pending.

What you see will not remotely resemble wrestling as you know it now. Now if that's what you choose to do, you have that freedom. But when you turn on RAW and find the Gobbedlygooker and Hillbilly Jim back again, don't come back and complain after the fact. You'll have forfeited that right by your inaction. A form of entertainment you enjoy will have been taken away from you, perhaps permanently.

Finally, as I stated in the August 3rd AS I SEE IT:

"PWBTS.com, the flagship website of AS I SEE IT and co-founding site of Wrestling Fans Against Censorship; has always believed that it's more important to stand up for what is right, rather than what is expedient. We believe that it's more important to stand up for what we know fans need, rather than that which would provide our website a provide temporary political benefit or greater commercial success within wrestling...."

Or Lord knows, sometimes even those things we'd find more fun to write about.

"...PWBTS supports the right of fans to watch the [type of] sports entertainment they choose; be that the family-oriented product of an NWA-Jersey, the hardcore product of a Combat Zone Wrestling, or the over-the-top product of the World Wrestling Federation....without the censorship of those who purport the right to be our censors....without putting politics above conscience... without sacrificing loyalty to who and what we believe for any price."

THAT is the way we see it.

And that is why we continue to do it.

(If you have comments or questions, I can be reached by e-mail at bobmagee1@hotmail.com)