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So You Think You Can Rate a TV Show?
Brought to you by the Parents Television
Council
WARNING: Graphic
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Jericho
on CBS
Rating: TV-PG L
By Caroline Schulenburg
Jericho,
CBS’s edgy sci-fi drama about a tiny town that manages to survive a nuclear
holocaust, is definitely not as family-friendly a program as Fox’s American
Idol. Yet these very different shows carried an identical rating the same
night. One program was an excellent choice for families, while the other was
nothing less than a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The episode that aired on
February 12th was rated TV-PG L, suggesting that this program is
suitable most children and doesn’t contain any violence worth mentioning.
Unfortunately, the industry demonstrated once again that it cannot be relied
upon to accurately rate its own programs. Early in the episode, a fierce battle
scene is shown. Several dead bodies are dragged away from the fray while guns
fire around them. Later, the body of a man who was killed while attempting to
sneak into Jericho is shown, to prove to the main characters that they are still
at risk. And if these incidents were not enough to make a case for a V
designator, there are numerous other situations involving gun threats scattered
throughout the episode.
As long as the networks are
left free to rate their own programs, without reference to well-defined
standards, it is a certainty that failures to under-rate programs such as
Jericho will continue; and parents who trust that they can use the current
system to protect their children from gratuitous violence will be betrayed.
If you agree that this program was inadequately
rated, please write to the TV ratings advisory board at
tvomb@usa.net and let them know that the TV
ratings once again failed to adequately warn parents about inappropriate
content.
For more information about the TV ratings,
please visit
http://www.tvguidelines.org/contact.asp.
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