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Parents Television Council Falls on Hard Times

Things are not going well for the Parents Television Council. The watchdog organization that gave Gossip Girl its greatest ad campaign, helped turn Nipplegate into Nipplegate, and just last week took issue with some of Glee’s full-grown cast members appearing on the cover of a magazine for full-grown people because it bordered “on pedophilia,” “now finds itself damaged, defanged by court challenges to the F.C.C.’s hard-line position, by its own dwindling finances and by internal troubles that resulted in its accusing a former senior employee of extortion.” According to a story in today’s Times, revenues have dropped by 26 percent, staff has been reduced by 38 percent, the organization has likely been fudging membership numbers, and it is currently waging a futile war against CBS’s recently picked-up, very well-rated $#*! My Dad Says (““At the end of the day,” says the PTC’s president, “We’re hopeful that advertisers will realize they shouldn’t be associated with excrement.” Aw). But if the PTC’s bad luck continues, where will TV shows, music videos, and magazines turn when they need to ginny up some sales-boosting outrage? [NYT]

Parents Television Council Falls on Hard Times