The group once had a major issue with WWE.
It focused on broadcast television.
Donations have dried up, forcing its closure and liquidation.
It’s very rare that a group created to unofficially regulate content has any real impact. In the mid-80s, Tipper Gore, the wife of Vice President Al Gore, led the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), which had some impact.
The PMRC wanted record labels to put warning labels on albums with explicit content. The problem, of course, wasn’t exactly the labels, but more who decided which records were explicit.
“Labeling is little more than truth in packaging, by now a time-honored principle in our free enterprise system,” Gore told a congressional hearing. “And without labeling, parental guidance is virtually impossible.”
Unlike many similar organizations, the PMRC actually succeeded.
“Gore and the PMRC eventually achieve their goals. Two months after the hearing, they strike a deal with the recording industry, which leads to the placement of stickers reading, ‘Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics’ in the bottom-right corner of certain albums,” NPR reported.
About a decade later, another similar group emerged, except this time, it wanted to regulate television. Much like Gore’s group, the question wasn’t as much “Should there be ratings?” as it was “How do you decide where the line is?”
That group, the Parents Television Council, later the Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be liquidated.
The PTMC describes itself on its website:
“The PTC promotes and restores responsibility and decency to the entertainment industry in answer to America’s demand for positive, family-oriented television programming. The PTC does this by fostering changes in TV programming to make the early hours of prime time family-friendly and suitable for viewers of all ages,” it shared.
The group specifically targeted broadcast television.
Because of the pervasive and powerful influence of television, the PTC seeks to discourage the increasingly graphic sexual themes and dialogue, depictions of gratuitous violence, and profane/obscene language that have crowded out family viewing options.
The group had mixed success over the years, and now its end is coming, as it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will be liquidated.
“The Burbank-based organization filed the paperwork late last week in Delaware Bankruptcy Court. A total of 26 creditors were sent notices of the filing Thursday, according to court documents. The court has set meeting of those creditors for November 5,” IMDB reported.
