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Obscene Videos Prompt Outcry

MICHEL MARTIN, host:

I'm Michel Martin and this is Tell Me More from NPR News. In a moment, "This I Believe," our first contribution to this historic radio series is coming up next. But first, the Memphis school system is reeling from a scandal. That's after videos of local high school students performing sexually suggestive dances surfaced on YouTube. Some officials at Mitchell High School in Memphis blame student behavior in part on the sexually explicit content of Pop culture. Concern about that influence is part of what drives the efforts of the Reverend Delman Coats. He is the founder of the "Enough is Enough Campaign." The group aims to curb the violent and sexual content of music video programs on BET and MTV.

To establish the scope of the problem, Reverend Coates joined forces with the Parents Television Council. That's a group that monitors suggestive content. Their detailed analysis of the content of rap music videos on BET and MTV is called the "Rap On Rap." Recently, I spoke to Reverend Coats and Tim Winter of the Parents Television Council. We also invited representatives of MTV and BET to join us but they declined. Mr. Winter explained how his group got involved with "Enough is Enough."

Mr. TIM WINTER (President, Parents Television Council): A few months ago, Pastor Coates reached out to the Parents Television Council and asked for our assistance in conducting a research project quantifying and qualifying certain programs on BET and MTV. The three programs were called "Rap City" and "106 & Park" on BET, and MTV's "Sucker Free" on MTV.

We analyzed a two-week period of these programs during December of 2007, and we logged every instance of sex, violence, profanity, illegal activity, et cetera, and in the course of 27 and a-half hours of content we logged 1,647 instances of offensive material. That was almost one per minute and that, just way of perspective, that's about five times more offensive content than what we normally see on primetime broadcast television during the family hour.

The numbers were so high that we thought they couldn't possibly be right so we recorded in March another one-week period and actually, it went up. The offensive content went up to one instance of adult content every 38 seconds. Those results were just staggering from our perspective.

MARTIN: And what time of day was this programming being presented?

Mr. WINTER: That's what I think is one of the biggest issues and concerns here. These programs didn't air late at night when kids are in bed. These shows aired right after school.

MARTIN: Reverend Coates, your group has been aggressively critiquing BET over its video content, even to the point of picketing the home of BET president Debra Lee. What made you call for this report? The reason I would mention that is that some would argue that you found what you were looking for.

REV. DELMAN COATES (Founder, "Enough is Enough Campaign"): Right. In September I received a letter from the CEO of Black Entertainment Television and in that letter she states that BET does not air programming that endorses or condones illegal drugs or gratuitous violence. We do not air music videos that contain graphic or excessive sexual content. So I thought it was important to quantify, provide some empirical basis for what people have felt intuitively. So that's why we reached out to Parents Television Council.

MARTIN: Can you talk about some of the imagery in the videos that you object to? If you could just give us some specific examples of the kinds of things you're concerned about.

REV. COATES: There are songs that are running everyday, songs like "One Hundred Million" by Birdman, or "The Boss" by Rick Ross. "One Hundred Million" is all about young black men as drug dealers, making money from the drug trade. And this is obvious because when you listen to the specific versions they air on BET, the references to drugs are edited and deleted. So it's very disturbing when you have this sort of celebration and glorification of drug dealing and criminal activity.

MARTIN: For people who aren't familiar with it, I'm just going to play a short clip of "Birdman," if you don't mind, and I'm going to play a little bit of it and I have to - I do have to warn our listeners that some of the content might be offensive.

(Soundbite of song "One Hundred Million")

BIRDMAN: (singing) When I wear da whitest soft watch it disappear I disappear in da middle of da night When I reappear bet da boss look so bright Fo life, dough boy, More strikes, O boy We ridin low, Gettin (bleep) 80 round drum let ya know da time

MARTIN: So that's "One Hundred Million"...

REV. COATES: That's "One Hundred Million."

MARTIN: By Birdman. And I understand that the content is one that a lot of people find objectionable but the video itself - some explosions, some women in halter tops and shorts, they're counting money, lot of men in sunglasses and some big necklaces. If it's the language or the story that people are so offended by, why not the radio stations or the artists themselves, as opposed to the video?

Rev. COATES: Well certainly, urban radio has a responsibility, the record companies and record labels themselves and the individual artist. The reason I chose to approach the video channels in the beginning was that it was through the video channels that you were able to engage a variety of players: advertisers, people who produced the videos, record labels, artists. You know, a sort of all-in-one sort of issue, but certainly there are more players that are implicated in this issue.

MARTIN: Tim Winter, the Rap On Rap report gives this very detailed analysis about the language used in these videos, but at the same time you acknowledge that more than 90 percent of the expletives used were bleeped out or they were obscured. So some would argue, what's the problem?

Mr. WINTER: Well, we are very quick to condemn broadcast television stations for using, for instance, an "F" word, unscripted that may have aired during a live broadcast.

When you have something like what we are seeing here, for instance, the "N" word, which by most in America I think is one of the most vile words in our vocabulary, it's not just an occasional instance where it has been blocked. We found, in the course of our December analysis, 148 times that word is used.

If it's used once and it's bleeped, it's one thing. When it's used 148 times and it's bleeped or just partially bleeped, that still makes a tremendous impact of both audioably and visually, especially for children.

MARTIN: Reverend Coates?

Rev. COATES: What I would say on that issue is that by defining the content and categories in the way that we have, sexually explicit-natured, drug references, et cetera, what it does, it links words to context so for the hearer even the word is bleeped. And quite frankly, in many instances it's not even the entire word. With digital editing you can kind of bleep a middle vowel and you kind of get the beginning consonant and the ending consonant.

What this study shows is that there's a connection between words and context, and young people and those who are listening understand that context whether a word is bleeped or...

MARTIN: You're saying that video makes it more powerful, makes a deeper impression.

Rev. COATES: There's no question. There's no question.

MARTIN: If you're just joining us, you are listening to Tell Me More from NPR News, and we're talking about obscenity in music videos with Reverend Delman Coates of the "Enough is Enough Campaign" and Tim Winter of the Parents Television Council.

Reverend Coates, I have to ask you. The Parents Television Council has been working on trying to make television and sort of the entertainment media more family-friendly for a long time, since I think 1995. Tim Winter, is that right?

Mr. WINTER: That's correct.

MARTIN: OK. But how do you know - I'm looking at the group at their Web site. The board of directors is five white men. A number of them are very politically conservative. How do you know that their view of what's objectionable is the same as yours, particularly from a cultural perspective?

I'm reminded of the fact that, you know, Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" back in 1939 was banned from the radio because it was considered offensive. And it was a cry against the practice of lynching. There was no obscene language in it. But the - you know, the radio stations, the record companies didn't like what she had to say.

So how do you know that the people doing this analysis are on the same page with you about what constitutes objectionable content?

Mr. WINTER: I think the issue of decency in the public square is not a partisan issue. I think that - when we've done our campaigns and our rallies we had representatives from a variety of political backgrounds.

MARTIN: It may not be partisan, but there are cultural questions at issue here.

Mr. WINTER: Yeah. And that's...

MARTIN: For example, like if there was an image of lynching, that would be a provocative and disturbing image, but some people might argue it's not gratuitous if there's some purpose to it.

Mr. WINTER: Right. And that's why those who have been involved in our campaign, those who have been involved in the study have been, you know, African-Americans for whom we trust their backgrounds. Dr. E. Faye Williams, President of the National Congress of Black Women has been intimately involved in this campaign, spoke at the press conference, and so I think that people from a variety of perspectives and backgrounds - this is a deeply American issue, an American problem.

MARTIN: There are those who do believe, though, that the African-American artists are a particular target for cultural criticism that other artists sometimes escape. Here's an example. There is the Justin Timberlake video, "What Goes Around Comes Around." Let me play a short clip of that. I'll just tell you what's happening here in this video. After Scarlett Johansson, you know, sort of rising star among young actresses plays his cheating girlfriend...

(Soundbite of video "What Goes Around Comes Around"):

When you cheated girl, my heart bleeded girl. So it goes without saying that ya left me feeling hurt. Just a classic case, sce-sce-scenario. Tale as old as time, girl you got what you deserved.

(Soundbite of crash)

MARTIN: And that's where she dies. And then there is another, there's "Maroon Five," there is a lot of - I don't know if you've seen that one, a lot of under-dressed women riding around. And this one, the lead singer shoots the other guy to death, dumps his body off a bridge.

Anyway, the point here is that a lot of the African-Americans artists believe that they are subjected to a double standard, that they're constantly the focus of criticism where other artists of different demographics don't come in for this level of criticism.

I would like to hear what both of you have to say. Mr. Winter?

Mr. WINTER: You know, we go back to the study. When you do a research report you establish methodology and you then record the programming and you analyze it. And you don't start with, gosh, let's cherry-pick and see, make sure that we have x number from this person and y number from that person.

We recorded the content. I honestly don't know, I have no idea whatsoever what proportion of the artists were of one ethnic group or another. All I know is the data is the data, and the data is very concerning and it should be concerning for every parent in the country.

MARTIN: OK. Reverend Coates, what's your thought on this? And if you don't mind my pointing it out, you are African-American yourself.

Rev. COATES: Sure. You know, I'm a pastor in a black neighborhood, a black community. I deal with the young African-Americans kids. I deal with teachers who teach young black kids. They're not listening to Justin Timberlake. You know, they're listening to black entertainment television and Psycho Free Countdown, and so the reason we're having this campaign focus on this one particular issue is to deal with the issues in our community, in the community that I serve.

MARTIN: And Tim, there are parental controls available now. You can block out the content on your television. Why isn't that enough?

Mr. WINTER: That's one of the surprising findings of our study. In order for the V-chip or some other blocking device to work, it relies on a rating system. And what's interesting is that TV networks rate their own programs. It's not independently rated, and we found in the entire 27 and a-half hours in December and the entire 14 hours in March, there was only one program that included the descriptors "DLS" and "V," which would trigger the V-chip to be able to block content that a parent finds offensive.

MARTIN: So the standards are just too lax, in your view.

Mr. WINTER: There were no standards. Even the most diligent parents using every technology means available could not have blocked this material, based upon the content.

MARTIN: And finally, Reverend Coates, what do you want to happen now? I know you've at least one meeting with BET CEO Debra Lee. So far as I can see, there doesn't seem to be any meeting of the minds here, but where does this go next?

Rev. COATES: Well, we expected that this study is going to affect both revenue and ratings for these video programs. And in the coming weeks, many of our supporters and our partnering organizations will be contacting the top advertisers and sponsors who are running commercials on these programs. And we will be urging them to remove their commercials from these particular programs.

MARTIN: Rev. Delman Coates is the founder of "Enough is Enough." It's a group he started to draw attention to what he considers objectionable programming on BET, particularly. He was kind enough to join us in our Washington studio. Tim Winter is the president of the Parents Television Council. He joined us from NPR West. Thank you both.

Mr. WINTER: Thank you.

Rev. COATES: Thank you, Michel.

MARTIN: As I mentioned earlier, we invited representatives from both MTV and BET to join our conversation. They declined, but BET did send a written statement. You can find that on our Web site at npr.org/tellmemore. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.