the
facts
The specialty service Prime broadcast the feature film Smokey and the Bandit, a 1977 comedy starring
Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Central Time (noon
to 2:00 pm Eastern) on May 13, 2006. (Subsequent
to the broadcast, Prime changed its name to Tvtropolis.)
In the film, Bandit (Reynolds) and his partner Snowman were hired to
illegally transport a truckload of beer across state lines.
Carrie (Field) was a runaway bride they encountered along the way.
Mayhem ensued as they tried to evade the police, who were in hot pursuit
of both Carrie and the Bandit (they did not yet know about the illegal cargo
in the truck, for which the Bandit was the outrider distraction). Prime rated the broadcast PG. It also provided the following viewer advisory
in audio and video format at the beginning and coming out of every commercial
break:
The following program contains
scenes of violence and coarse language. Viewer
discretion is advised.
The broadcast contained a number of instances of coarse language, including
"son-of-a-bitch", "damn", "hell", "shit", "bullshit", "ass" and "Jesus Christ".
There was also one scene in which a character mouthed the words "Fuck
off", but they were inaudible, drowned out purposefully by the sound effects
employed at that instant for comedic effect.
A viewer in
On Saturday morning the movie
Smokey and the Bandit was on. I have seen a clean version of this movie but
was surprised that this was the original print.
The movie had a large amount of foul language in it. My complaint is: A) There were no warnings regarding the content
of the movie and its language; B) Movies with adult language should not be
on at 11AM when children are watching TV vs. having it on later at night.
I feel Prime was negligent in warning [sic] the public and living
up [sic] to its responsibility to the public.
They put the wrong movie on in the wrong time slot.
Prime responded to the complainant on June 5 with the following explanation:
In your letter, you have raised
concerns regarding the content of programming airing from 11:00 am to 1:00
pm Central Daylight Time, when children could be watching. We acknowledge the opinion you hold with respect
to this matter, and respect the fact that you were concerned enough to bring
this to our attention.
Under the Broadcasting Act, Canadian broadcasters are required to provide a
broad spectrum of entertainment and information programming for "men, women
and children of all ages, interests and tastes."
Television programming is required to be diverse and appealing to a
wide variety of audiences and what one viewer might consider an interesting
program, might lead another to turn the channel.
Prime/Global Television Specialty
Networks adheres to the television rating system created by the Canadian Association
of Broadcasters (CAB) and the Action Group on Violence on Television (AGVOT).
This public rating system is intended to advise viewers of a program's
content in order to allow you, the viewer, to determine a program's suitability
for your own viewing needs and desires. As
required, an on-screen key airs for the first fifteen seconds of the program
and the matching V-chip data is encoded into our transmission for the entire
duration of the program.
Also, with this in mind, we assigned
an AGVOT rating of PG (parental guidance programming) to this program.
In accordance with the Code of Ethics and to assist our viewers
in making informed decisions, we also aired the following visual and verbal
viewer advisory at the top of the show and coming out of every commercial
break:
"The following program contains
scenes of violence and coarse language. Viewer discretion is strongly advised."
Further to your specific complaint
concerning scenes containing profanity, after reviewing the tape in question,
the content is consistent with the guidelines of the PG rating which states:
might contain infrequent and mild profanity,
might contain mildly suggestive language.
We do appreciate that the content
in this broadcast may not be suitable for all viewers, and as diligent broadcasters,
we acknowledge the importance of airing the movie with the appropriate viewer
advisories. Having done so, we do not
feel the broadcast contravened any regulations or guidelines.
After a telephone conversation with the complainant, Prime sent him an
additional response on June 6:
Thank you for your follow-up
call on Monday afternoon. As I said,
I have followed up with our programming department to determine the selection
of the movie version that went to air. You
are correct that there is a "sanitized" version that has actually aired on
Prime before, and the unedited version was unfortunately selected to air when
you were watching. We apologize for
this error. You will note that there
are no movies scheduled to air on Tvtropolis, so we have eliminated this possible
problem for this network in the future.
With regard to your second concern
relating to viewer advisories, please note that the following visual and verbal
advisory did air at the top of the show and coming out of commercial breaks,
"The following program contains
scenes of violence and coarse language. Viewer discretion is strongly advised."
I am also providing a summary
of the number of advisories that were run during this movie. Upon reviewing the tape in question of this
particular broadcast, the advisory aired a total of nine (9) times during
the two-hour broadcast at the following times (all in Central Daylight Time): 10:59:50, 11:20:32, 11:38:23, 12:02:03, 12:16:01,
12:24:26, 12:41:19, 12:51:34.
I trust this now directly answers
your two specific concerns. Thanks
for taking the time to follow up with me to ensure you received answers to
these two questions.
The complainant submitted his Ruling Request on June 5 with the following
additional comments:
Today a response was received
from the broadcaster. The response
missed the reason for my complaint and was typical corporate "babble".
I did call the broadcaster and spoke to [the Director of Marketing]. The conversation and response from him was not
acceptable. First in his letter to
me I was advised of a rating system and was fully aware of the system, thus
the complaint. The broadcaster was
advised to address two major points that they failed to do and was requested
of them. The two unanswered questions
were: A) Why was a movie aired not only in
the decision
The National Specialty Services Panel examined the complaint under the
following provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) Code of Ethics and CAB Voluntary Code regarding Violence in Television Programming:
CAB Code of Ethics, Clause 10 - Television Broadcasting (Scheduling)
a) Programming which contains
sexually explicit material or coarse or offensive language intended for adult
audiences shall not be telecast before the late viewing period, defined as
9 pm to 6 am. [...]
CAB Violence Code, Article 4 - AGVOT's Classification System for
English-Language Broadcasters
PG - Parental Guidance
Descriptive
This programming, while intended
for a general audience, may not be suitable for younger children (under the
age of 8). Parents/guardians should
be aware that there might be content elements which some could consider inappropriate
for unsupervised viewing by children in the 8-13 age range.
Programming within this classification
might address controversial themes or issues. Cognizant that pre-teens and early teens could
be part of this viewing group, particular care must be taken not to encourage
imitational behaviour, and consequences of violent actions shall not be minimized.
Violence Guidelines
- any depiction of conflict and/or
aggression will be limited and moderate; it might include physical, fantasy,
or supernatural violence.
- any such depictions should
not be pervasive, and must be justified within the context of theme, storyline
or character development.
Other Content Guidelines
Language: - might contain infrequent and mild profanity
- might contain mildly suggestive language
Sex/Nudity: - could possibly contain brief scenes of
nudity
- might have limited and
discreet sexual references or content when appropriate to the storyline or
theme
The National Specialty Services Panel Adjudicators viewed a tape of the
broadcast and read all of the correspondence.
The Panel concludes that, in its broadcast of Smokey and the Bandit,
Prime was not in breach of either of the foregoing standards.
The Nature of the Content
The Panel begins by acknowledging Prime's admission of an error in deciding
to broadcast the unedited version of Smokey and the Bandit in this
early time slot. It recognizes that
the broadcaster would have preferred not to offer such fare to its audience
in a mid-day time slot. That is to
its credit and a reflection of the fact that broadcasters frequently take
decisions in the interests of their audiences whether or not they are obliged
to do so by codified or regulatory standards. That
being said, the Panel recognizes that its responsibility is strictly to consider
whether broadcast material breaches a codified standard.
The
Panel recognizes that coarse language is not polite and that some members
of society are understandably very offended by it.
Regrettably for some, coarse or offensive language is permissible on
the airwaves, albeit under some restrictions.
While there is no list of offensive words, there have been CBSC decisions
that have defined certain language as "intended exclusively for adult audiences".
Those words, hitherto the f-word and its derivatives, have been relegated
to post-Watershed broadcast. All other
words considered by the various Panels (with a rare exception not relevant
to the matter under consideration) have been viewed as acceptable for broadcast,
albeit in bad taste, before 9:00 pm. In
an early B.C. Panel decision dealing with the issue, namely, CHAN-TV
re Sportscast (CBSC Decision 95/96-0108, December 18, 1996), the words
"crap" and "ass" were used by an interviewee sports expert in a description
of a hockey team. A viewer felt that such "gutter words" were
completely unacceptable and were setting a very poor example to the younger
generation. The Panel considered the
complaint under the relevant clause of the Code as well as with reference
to the section of the CRTC's Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987, which refers to language and provides
that "A licensee shall not broadcast [...] (c) any obscene or profane language
or pictorial representation." Applying
current broad social norms, the Panel concluded that this language, while
not "attractive, articulate or perhaps even appropriate to the airwaves,"
nevertheless did not violate the Code:
They may even be, to use the characterization of the
complainant, "gutter or crude" language. They
are not, however, in the view of the B.C. Regional Council, either obscene
or profane, which is ultimately the test which the Regional Council must apply.
The National Specialty Services Panel finds that the matter at hand is
similar. In the challenged film, the
off-colour words "son-of-a-bitch", "damn", "hell", "shit", "bullshit", "ass"
and "Jesus Christ" were the offenders. There
was no use of the f-word except as cleverly muted (as described above). Since muting is one of the acceptable solutions
to the problem of insertion of such language in an original cinematic film,
there could be no breach on its form of usage in this instance. Overall, the Panel concludes that the particular
coarse language used in Smokey and the Bandit is insufficient to characterize
the film as exclusively adult fare. The Panel finds no breach in its broadcast prior
to the Watershed.
Viewer Advisories
The CBSC sometimes refers to viewer advisories as the quid pro quo
for the entitlement of broadcasters to air matter that some persons will find
inappropriate for their viewing. It
does, after all, make sense. Coarse
language, to take the example relevant to the matter at hand, will not offend
everyone but it will trouble some viewers.
To balance the rights of those who seek accessibility to such programming
with the rights of those who seek avoidance of it,
In the matter before the National Specialty Services Panel, the logger
tape of the broadcast has been carefully reviewed by the Adjudicators. Notwithstanding the assertion of the complainant
to the contrary, the review of the logger tape by the Adjudicators makes it
absolutely clear that the necessary advisory was present at the start of the
movie and coming out of every single commercial break thereafter. Prime did its job and its Director of Marketing
provided confirming detail regarding the precise timing of the broadcast of
each of the viewer advisories. Prime
fulfilled its obligations under Article 4 of the CAB Violence Code
and Clause 10 of the CAB Code of Ethics. The Panel also agrees that the PG rating applied
by the broadcaster was correct.
Broadcaster Responsiveness
The CBSC always assesses the broadcaster's responsiveness
to the complainant, which is a responsibility of membership in the Council.
It expects that response to be thoughtful and focussed on the substance
of the complaint. In the matter at hand, the Panel considers that
the two responses from Global
Television's Director of Marketing constitute a sufficient reply to fulfill Global's
obligation of responsiveness on this occasion.
This decision is a public document upon its release by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. It may be reported, announced or read by the station against which the complaint had originally been made; however, in the case of a favourable decision, the station is under no obligation to announce the result.