Cops vs. Skaters: Video of Skater Arrest Leads to Investigation

ABCNews reports on a police brutality case captured on camera and posted on YouTube - which took on a life of it's own.

"According to the skateboarders, Police Officer Joey Williams used excessive force in apprehending them for violating a city ordinance against skaters on the street. They have circulated a video of the incident on YouTube that has garnered almost a million views since it was posted June 25 and landed Williams at the center of an internal misconduct investigation and on paid leave from his post.

McCormack, 21, who shot the video and posted it on YouTube, told ABC News that he always carries a digital camera while skating, as he is gathering material for a local skate shop and feels particularly fortunate to have caught this incident.

... Hundred of skaters and concerned Internet users, especially teens, have been posting the video on blogs, MySpace and Facebook pages, calling the incident an example of "police brutality" and encouraging others to flood the Police Department with calls."

Making TV Cool Again

Maybe the appeal and future of television is not all about bigger screens and higher definition. Think back when Bill Gates famously misjudged the Internet. He thought it was too slow and didn't believe it would be commercially viable. "There's no money to be made there. Why is that an interesting business?', he said in an April 1994 board meeting and later rewrote history and a chapter of his book "The Road Ahead".

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld for MultiChannel News writes a very interesting article, raising the same issue. Could Big Media be misjudging the tremendous appeal of television online and on mobile devices? Thinking the screens aren't big enough and the quality of the video's not up to par with HD? Excerpts.

"Television is now sitting in the backseat, when it comes to getting the attention and keeping it of a whole generation of viewers.

When young people are asked to choose what the most important devices in their lives were. Hands down winner: cell phone. Tossup for second place: Computer and iPod. Tivo – and the TV – was something the parents seem to need.

Last September, Forrester Research came to a similar conclusion. Television is the most important device for consumers over the age of 40. If you’re planning for the future, the cell phone was the most important device for consumers between the ages of 18 and 26. Second: the personal computer.

TV companies wave away concern over this change by discussions of “quality of service” and the benefits of high-definition television.

The content on computer and cell phone is low-quality; and the quality of the pictures are low-grade. The new platforms are simply not competitive with conventional multichannel video services, goes the argument.

But that misses the point, noted an executive for one European maker of cable operations support software. The computer and the cell phone rank higher because they are not joint property of the family, for practical purposes. They are personal. They are portals into youngsters’ own private worlds. No one has to see what videos you’re watching, how many IMs you’re sending (or to whom or what you’re saying), or whether you’re getting your homework done or not.

Beyond being more personal and private, the devices serve more purposes. To the youngsters on the IBM video, the computer is a more enjoyable device because it does more. You can have access to the entire Internet. In their eyes, that means TV, too. They don’t make distinctions about streaming or downloading. They just know they can watch TV on their computer. The TV, by contrast, is a single-purpose, standalone and standapart machine. What’s the fun in that?

This generation is used to computers crashing, so quality of service is a relative term. And HD? Does it really make that much of a difference on computer or cell phone screens? Most probably, not.

Making TV cool again will mean making TV about more than just kicking back for the finest picture money can buy."

Joost and Babelgum, gated communities

Joost and Babelgum remind me of the early Internet. Both platforms are to watching TV online, what Prodigy, Compuserve and AOL were to the early Internet. Gated communites with no direct access to the WWW.

Tony Blair's video tips for budding prime ministers

Tony Blair has done what every employee should do after leaving office: he's left a short note - or in his case a YouTube video - to help the next person - Gordon Brown - to fill his post. [via The Guardian Blogs]

Citizen journalism meets voter activism on YouTube

Presidential hopeful Chris Dodd is trying to break out of the mold of YouTube’s candidate Spotlight videos.

In a video to go up today, he pushes voters to take their own video cameras and approach their senators and congressmen, asking them to talk about Iraq and to give their stand on the Dodd amendment, which would require starting to pull out of Iraq in 30 days, and then putting those videos up on YouTube.

[PrezVid via Buzzmachine]

Satellite dishes as decorative objects

Satellite dishes are seen on buildings in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The project to 'pimp' the dishes is an initiative of a Dutch artist working with school children in an area of the city referred to as 'satellite city,' inhabited predominantly by first and second generation immigrants. The hooks on the roof are used all over the city to move furniture in and out of apartments using a rope and pulley, as the staircases are narrow.

Fox News via Eyebeam reBlog

Sites Sued for agreggating and linking to copyright video

In what will put a damper on other similar websites as well as happy viewers, The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) has filed lawsuits against stream Indexers YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com for simply linking to infringing content. [via NewTeeVee]

Excerpts from pdf document:

"MPAA behalf of the major Hollywood movie studios filed lawsuits in federal court in Los Angeles yesterday against YouTVpc.com and Peekvid.com – websites that facilitate copyright infringement on the Internet. Sites like YouTVpc and Peekvid contribute to and profit from massive must be stopped,” said John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA.

“The sole purpose of these sites is to disseminate content that has been illegally reproduced and distributed. They are a one-stop shop for copyright infringement. These lawsuits should serve as a warning to other aspiring movie theft ‘entrepreneurs’ that they are not above the law and will face serious consequences for their activities. Profiting from the theft of other people’s creative works is illegal and must be stopped,” said John Malcolm, Executive Vice President and Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Operations for the MPAA.

YouTVpc and Peekvid rely on advertisers to maintain their illegal websites and they profit handsomely from a seemingly endless stream of third-party advertising pitches.

In addition to advertising revenues, operators of YouTVpc solicit monetary donations through a “Donations” tab on the website that allows users to make financial contributions through PPayPal.com. "

Warner opens Comedybox

Warner Music Entertainment, the video content division of Warner Music Intl., today announced the launch of Comedybox, a new online comedy channel, reports Variety.

"Channel will bring together comedians from around the world, as well as offer a forum for auds to post their own user-generated content and be judged by John Lloyd, one of the brains behind popular UK laffers "Spitting Image," "Blackadder," and current BBC quiz show "QI".

... The channel is set to launch in fall this year. A Wap version of the site for mobile phones is currently being developed which will give users access to all Comedybox content on demand."

BBC to launch on-demand Web TV service

The BBC's on demand TV service, the BBC iPlayer, will launch to the public on 27 July, the corporation has revealed. BBC News reports.

"UK users will be able to download popular shows over the net seven days after broadcast to watch on their PC.

Later this year, the service will also be available via links from YouTube and could also appear on other websites such as MSN, Bebo, and Facebook.

At launch the application will only work on Windows PCs but a version for the Mac could be available by autumn.

Over time other features will be added to the iPlayer including live streaming of programmes, the BBC Radio Player and "series stacking", which will allow users to download episodes from series retrospectively.

... At launch users will be able to download programmes seven days after their first transmission and will then have up to 30 days to watch them.

Programmes will include popular series such as Life on Mars; soap operas such as EastEnders and documentaries such as Planet Earth. Initially, 400 hours of programming will be available.

Some sporting events, such as Euro 2008, will be offered through the iPlayer as the service expands.

Mr Highfield said that over a 2MB broadband connection half and hour of programming would take approximately half an hour to download.

Once viewed in entirety, programmes will be automatically deleted. "

MySpace, Chasing YouTube, Upgrades Its Offerings

According to The New York Times, will show that it is serious about challenging YouTubein the booming world of online video.

"On Thursday, MySpace plans to rename and refurbish the video-sharing service on its popular social network. The new service, called MySpace TV, will be set up as an independent Web site that people can visit to share and watch video, even if they have not signed up for MySpace.

The site will also offer some new ways for members of MySpace, which attracts 110 million users a month, to more easily integrate the videos they create and watch into their personal profiles.

... MySpace has another reason for taking on YouTube more directly. Just as MySpace TV is being fashioned to compete with YouTube, engineers at YouTube are busy developing social networking features. On YouTube’s “Test Tube” page, where the company tests products in development, new tools allow YouTube users to chat while they watch the same clip and share their favorite videos.

... MySpace also wants MySpace TV to show off content like the Minisodes or television shows and movies from NBC Universal and Fox, which is part of News Corporation. The two studios are working on a joint Internet video effort, and will distribute their programs on the video sites of MySpace, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.

Paris Hilton walks free from Jail

Paris Hilton catwalks free from Jail just after midnight. Great outfit. It's all over television news. And of course on YouTube too.

Fun read from the Hollywood Reporter: Blissful is the world where Paris is not news.

Hit-and-run video posted on YouTube gets man fired

According to The Asahi Shimbun, the owner of a car involved in a hit-and-run (considered aminor collision by the police) was fired after footage of the collision was posted on the YouTube.

"The video shows a white sedan driving away after swiping the front right side of a car. The video was shot with a camcorder from inside the car that was hit.

Clearly displayed is the registration number of the white sedan.

After the video was posted, some viewers began posting private information of the car owner. The man's name, age, address as well as the company he worked at, were posted on Internet bulletin boards and blog sites.

The man's employer, a car repair and conversion company in Saitama Prefecture, announced on its Web site on June 15 that it had fired him after the company was flooded with phone calls."

Other vidoe post stories that aimed to shame.

-- Angry man over loud cellphone call becomes hit movie on youtube (Japan)

-- "dog-sh..-girl" a test of the Internet's Power to Shame (South Korea)

-- Camera phone photo of New York subway employee prompts investigation (USA)

The European Commission opens a channel on YouTube

The European Commission has jumped on the video-sharing bandwagon by opening a page on the YouTube website to spread its audiovisual messages.

"The EU homepage – www.youtube.com/EUtube - will officially be launched on Friday (29 June) under plans by EU communication commissioner Margot Wallstrom.

"We have audiovisual material on our own website," commission spokesman Mikolaj Dowgielewicz told EUobserver. "But people don't know it exists," he added, explaining that that is one of the main reasons for setting up the YouTube channel.

Watching Video on your Watch

Spotted on fosfor for gadgets. A video watch.

From dotcom to high level government position

File under musical chairs. According to Pointblog, Séverin Naudet, Dailymotion.com's Director of Content and Communication, is leaving Dailymotion to work under France's new Prime Minister, François Fillon, as "Technical Adviser in charge of media relations".

While his job at Dailymotion will be taken over by Martin Rogard, who was at the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, where he headed the Multimedia Department.

Regulating TV Violence Is Not Government's Job

The American Civil Liberties Union told Congress Tuesday to stay out of the content-control business, saying that is the parents' job, reports Broadcasting & Cable.

The group said it supported industry or government-sponsored media literacy education, but that "government-imposed standards for television violence would threaten core American values: the right to a free and open media, the right to free speech and the right of parents to control the upbringing of their children."

In a related article, Fox Broadcasting Entertainment President Peter Liguori says that he is just as concerned about societal violence as Congress, but that no causal link has been established between real violence and TV violence.

"Without a causal link," he says "we cannot justify imposing content limits on the media."

That was the message Liguori was going to deliver to Congress Tuesday morning at a hearing on TV violence scheduled in the Senate Commerce Committee.

French Video Site Dailymotion.com Stakes a Strong Position in the U.S. Market

Dailymotion has taken hold in the U.S., drawing more than 4.7 million video streamers in April. The average video streamer at Dailymotion.com viewed more than 10 videos and nearly one hour of video content in the month.

comScore's study examined six video-sharing sites that did not make comScore's ranking of the top 10 U.S. video properties for the month and reveals that French site Dailymotion.com had a particularly strong position in the U.S. video-sharing market in April 2007

... Veoh.com, which attracted the smallest video-viewing audience of the group, had the highest level of user engagement with more than 104 minutes per streamer , benefiting from the many full-length videos hosted on the site.

ComScore also examined the demographic composition of video streamers at these sites, revealing some interesting differences in the age of the audience each site attracts.

-- the coveted 18-34 age segment represented 41 percent of Break.com's audience,

-- followed by DailymotionVeoh.com (37 percent).

-- Heavy Networks drew the largest share of its video streamers from those younger than 18 years of age (18 percent),

-- while Revver.com and Metacafe.com drew the largest share among people age 35-44 (24 percent).

[via Press release]

Researcher Looks at the Entertainment Value of Murder in the US

Bloody murder has been a quintessentially American preoccupation since John Newcomen sailed in on the Mayflower and was whacked by a fellow colonist. A news release from The University of Buffalo.

"... Despite our overdeveloped lusts for the 'dark side,'" says cultural analyst and author David F. Schmid, Ph.D, "Americans seem to have no sense at all of how weird our engrossing interest in the macabre appears to those outside this country."

"The thrill and horror evoked by murder narratives bring us close to these 'others,' who hold us in their thrall because on the one hand, they are so like us, and on the other, so different.

Most societies, perhaps all, find murder and murderers of compelling interest," he says, "but Americans have taken this fascination to another level entirely."

Schmid says American crime literature and Americans' thirst for murder narratives harkens back to the mid-17th century, when scaffold sermons by the intellectual stars of Puritan New England began to be preached.

Other scholars agree, suggesting that the appetite for increasingly ghastly information about murder followed the decline of the Puritan ministry and its Calvinist ideals and their replacement by a consumer culture suffused with romantic, literary and legalistic ideals.

Schmid says, "Today's consumer culture offers a murder fix through a variety of media including tabloid newspapers, violent video games that permit us (through virtual technology) to "become" killers and through fictional films about psychopathic cannibals and other vicious murderers.

On television, cable stations such as "Court TV," shows such as "CSI" and "The Sopranos," as well as a seemingly endless stream of news programs and documentaries, all feature coverage of homicide. Like celebrity gossip programming, these shows often include the ever-popular invasion of privacy by camera.

"Our appetite apparently cannot be sated," Schmid says, "which raised the question for me of 'What's really going on here?'

"There are many reasons for this collective obsession today," he says, "but one reason is that -- let's face it, most of us -- in our own culture and others -- lead relatively boring, uneventful lives."

"As bizarre as it sounds, and although we may not want to admit it to ourselves," Schmid says, "many Americans engage routinely with murderous pop culture because it provides them with excitement in the midst of an otherwise mundane existence. Whether it be Hannibal Lector or Tony Soprano, our homicidal heroes are here to stay."

The British-born Schmid is an associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo where he teaches classes in popular culture and cultural studies. He is the author of "Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture" (2005) and has two books in progress: "The Scarlet Thread: A History of Homicide in American Popular Culture" and "Mean Streets and More: Space in Crime Fiction."

Thailand to lift ban on YouTube

The Information and Communication Technology Ministry said that Thai-based internet users will again be allowed to access hundreds of websites including YouTube, the popular video-sharing website, after it had been blocked for several months.

The ministry in early April began blocking the popular video-sharing website after it showed a sequence of video clips considered insulting to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej. [via The Bangkok Post]

Related articles:

-- Thailand drops plan to sue Google

-- Thai king to sue YouTube

Suits allege texting games on 'Apprentice,' other TV shows violate lottery rule

According to RCRnews, a hairdresser and a secretary from Georgia, among others, ave filed a class-action lawsuit against "The Apprentice," "Deal or No Deal" and "One vs. 100," alleging the shows' mobile games constitute illegal gambling.

"The suits, which are pending in federal court in Los Angeles, point to the lack of legal clarity when it comes to nascent marketing technologies—and to just how careful media companies and marketers must be to ensure their promotions fall within the law.

The lawsuits attack the games on the grounds that they charge viewers a 99-cent premium text-messaging fee to participate, a violation of what is known as the Standard Lottery Rule. That premium fee is applied on top of the basic text-message fee. The show's producers, the network and the cellphone carrier split the revenue.

... The games, which offer the option of entering for free online, could have gotten around the lottery laws had they offered something of value in return for the 99 cents, according to legal experts.

"It's a serious shot across the bow to some of these promotions," said Joseph Lewczak, an attorney with Davis & Gilbert who specializes in mobile-related legal issues.

"Charging a premium fee for a text message, which provides the entrant with no bona fide product or service, may be deemed illegal," he said. "It is important not to overlook the fact that, though mobile entertainment may be a new and fast-developing medium, this medium is not exempt from the laws that would otherwise apply in the brick-and-mortar world."

3 Million Canadians Upload Video

Canadians are creating, not just watching, online video, according to the results of an ongoing study of Canadians' technology and media use by Solutions Research Group a Toronto-based market research firm.

Three million Canadians (~16% of the Internet population) report having uploaded a short video to a private or a public web page. [via Newswire]

BBC captive in 'bomb vest' video

The kidnappers of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston have released a new video of him in which he is wearing what he says is an explosives vest. The BBC reports.

"In the tape, Mr Johnston says his captors have said they will detonate the vest if force is used to try to free him.

It is the second video released since Mr Johnston was abducted from a Gaza street on 12 March."

Cult of the Amateur

Andrew Keen, the founder of Audiocafe.com, is making waves with his latest book on The Cult of the Amateur. He stopped by to tape this video view on how user-generated content and companies like Google and YouTube are destroying our culture. Diane Brady reports for Business Week.

“It’s creating an increasingly inane and trivialized culture,” he told me. “One imaginary dystopia is that in 25 or 50 years, there will be no mainstream media. There’s nothing inevitable about Hollywood. There’s nothing inevitable about the music industry. The replacement for mainstream media is Twitter, it’s YouTube, it’s Wikipedia … If you read it on the Internet, it likely isn’t true.”

Video ads from Blinkx

Video search site Blinkx is launching on Monday a service to allow Web site publishers to put contextually relevant text or video ads alongside or in video clips. NewsBlog reports.

"The new AdHoc video ad platform uses speech recognition and looks at metadata in the clips and ads to match them up. For instance, the system would know to put a Home Depot ad with a video showing how to redecorate a kitchen.

Separately, Blinkx is announcing that it will be powering the video search for the new RealPlayer, as well as powering video search for Infospace and extending a distribution deal with Lycos."

Talks on global broadcast treaty fail

Talks on an international treaty updating broadcast rights to accommodate the Internet failed Friday because countries were unable to agree how much legal and technological protection to afford broadcasters, a U.S. official said. The AP reports.

"The treaty fell victim to disagreements over issues such as whether protection against piracy should cover only traditional broadcasting methods — meaning cable, antenna and satellite signals — or whether it should include retransmission over the Internet", said Paul Salmon, head of the U.S. delegation.

European countries wanted to give broadcasters rights over any content they transmit — even if they did not originally produce the content.

That type of rights-based treaty is opposed by electronics and telecommunication companies like Intel Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., as well as librarian groups and consumer advocates. They say it would stifle technological innovation and could prevent people from playing legal music or films over their home networks.

The groups have lobbied for a narrow treaty protecting only the signal itself from piracy."

Recruiters: You, too, can YouTube

We're all familiar with Job seekers creating video clips as a part of their application (and the infamous video-gone-wrong story of the Yale University student ), but now, according to the Philidelphia Inquirer videos have become the leading edge trend ifor recruiters too, as a tool to attract workers. Click here to see a variety of recruitment videos.

"YouTube-style videos are being used for employers and job seekers to market to each other," said Mark Oldman, cofounder of Vault.com, a media company that publishes career guides, and posts video resumes and company recruitment videos. "The whole phenomenon is crystallizing right now."

Besides Gestalt, Cisco Systems Inc., the CIA, the Los Angeles Police Department, and even Haverford Township's volunteer fire company have turned to YouTube to attract talent.

Why the trend?

More home computers can now handle streaming video; before, it was clunky.

Recruiters want to reach workers where they are, and younger job candidates like YouTube.

The amateurish videos on YouTube carry an aura of authenticity appealing to a generation jaded by slick media.

And finally, the medium itself is the message - funny, real, hip and technically savvy - all the characteristics of a wonderful place to work.

The style and the tone is as important as the message, and, in many cases, more important," Oldman said."

You.tv or Lifecasting

An insightful and thorough article by Brian Solis for Social Computing Magazine on the phenomenon of lifecasting on the Web - past and present.

"... Get ready for lifecasting

Lifecasting is the new "it" term to describe one's use of video to project their life on the Web. Yes, it's been done before, but it didn't have a dedicated market category or a constant user base to support it.

The truth is that Web 1.0 spawned a series of online reality stars who enjoyed more than their allotted "15" minutes of fame. JenniCam, We Live in Public, and even the infamous DotComGuy, all dabbled in early forms of video lifecasting, capturing and streaming Internet video for the world to catch a glimpse of their not-so-sensational lives.

Then there was Web 2.0

Without mentioning how porn truly paved the way for the future of online video (even though it did), video blogging and podcasting helped carry the torch forward for citizen journalists and video on the Net

iTunes, P2P networks, and most certainly, YouTube, Bittorrent, among other video sites, provided worldwide broadcast channels and an eager, captive audience for anyone with a video camera and an ordinary PC or Mac to become overnight stars - making public access TV programming seem like a crystal ball for the future of user generated content.

The difference now however, is that users are feverishly participating in social media, creating an explosive frenzy which continues to inspire new producers (and new uses) for those video cameras laying around the house.

And not to mention, the new web has created an entirely new set of viewers and and the ability to watch content on the go via the latest fashionable mobile accessories such as cellphones, iPods, Macbooks, subnotebooks, Zunes, multimedia players (MMPs), etc., all which have evolved into the next-generation of portable TVs if you will.

Lifecasting reaches an all new level

Enter 23-year-old Justin Kan and his new project Justin.tv While lifecasting 1.0 was based on fixed video feeds, usually well-placed webcams, Justin.tv is reality television literally. He wears a camera and through the wonders of modern technology, streams live video and audio feeds 24/7.

It doesn't matter that Justin.tv has a limited lifespan and that it will, as many before, fall victim to our alarmingly shrinking attention span. With every new video, podcast, vlog, and now reality lifecasting, viewers are lining up and shouting for more. They're looking for the next big thing. And if they can't find it. They'll create it.

It's all about You.tv and the new, sophisticated, easy-to-use broadcast infrastructure that supports content creation and the ability to view it anywhere, anytime.

Justin.tv is much more than just a novelty, it's the beginning of mobile lifecasting.

... There are already live shows that are demonstrating the breadth and potential for lifecasting - which for the most part will all be categorized as livecasting because the only difference is the content, not the tools used to broadcast it.

Take a look at the new set of livestreaming platforms that facilitate You.tv. Read more

Thought Activated Television

Scientists are refining technology which could allow viewers to change channels or switch the set on and off without lifting a finger, reports Daily Mail.

"Staff at the Japanese technology giant Hitachi have already succeeded in harnessing the power of thought to make a model train move and believe it is only a matter of time before the same technology can be applied to the TV remote.

The technique, known as optical topography, reads thoughts by measuring changes in blood flow to key areas of the brain.

The changes - detected by a sensor-covered cap which sends small amounts of infrared light through the brain - are passed to a small computer through optical fibres.

The computer decodes the signal, working out the person's intention. It then triggers the remote control - changing the channel or volume or switching it on or off, as desired. This week, Hitachi demonstrated the "brain-machine interface" in action, when a reporter made a model train move through the power of thought.

... The technology could one day replace remote controls and computer keyboards and perhaps help the disabled operate electric wheelchairs. It could also be used to help paralysed people communicate - even when they have lost control of all of their muscles."

Campy TV shows get condensed

A new online channel shaves campy TV shows down to a few minutes each. The WSJ reports.

"Deciding whether to watch a rerun of "Fantasy Island" would normally raise the question: Is the nostalgia trip worth 60 minutes of your time? A new online channel is trying to settle that with old TV shows shaved down to a few minutes each.

The Minisode Network, launched this past week on MySpace, offers episodes from 15 TV series, predominately kitschy titles from the 1970s and '80s, including "Charlie's Angels" and "Silver Spoons."

They've been repurposed for Web audiences by editors who have slashed almost everything between theme song and closing credits. All that's left are major plot points, action sequences and witty one-liners -- and it's surprising how little seems missing."

Television tests its taboos

Networks and series creators regularly test boundaries of what is permissible, and the latest examples of this are found in the 25 primetime series scheduled to premiere this fall. Variety reports.

The new battlefronts in the culture wars:

-- Male characters on TV series cavorting with transvestites.

-- Teens musing about deflowering female classmates.

-- Amorous monkeys joining in on human sex play.

Viewing those pilots underscores how subtly the bar this year is being raised (or lowered) in the effort to surprise and titillate viewers in ways that can confound the schemes of federal regulators, pandering legislators, watchdogs and occasionally the networks themselves.

The content in some fall shows will undoubtedly fuel those who claim TV is creating a decline in moral values -- fretting that will surely grow louder the closer we get to the 2008 election.

... Where does this leave cultural warriors? Fed up and frustrated, if a new study from The Culture and Media Institute -- like the aforementioned PTC, a subdivision of the conservative Media Research Center with a neutral-sounding name -- is any indication.

In a survey titled "The Media Assault on American Values," the "institute" quotes findings that claim two-thirds of Americans believe the media not only play an important role in shaping moral values but actively harm them. In fact, the report contends that watching TV fosters more permissive attitudes about extramarital sex, abortion rights and homosexuality, highlighting the attitudinal distinction between "light" and "heavy" TV viewers.

Betraying their own bias, the researchers stress that infrequent TV viewers are far more likely than heavy ones to believe television undermines American morality, which they characterize as a sign of TV's "seductive effect." However, they are ignoring a more intriguing possibility: That people who actually watch TV have a clearer sense of whether its content is genuinely "harmful" than those basing their opinions on an uninformed hunch.

Related:

-- Does Watching TV Damage Character? - The Culture and Media Institute's new Special Report, The Media Assault on American Values, reveals that media messages appear to be undermining the pillars of America’s cultural edifice: strength of character, sexual morality and respect for God.

-- Why TV Addiction Links to Liberalism i - Those who describe themselves as “heavy” TV viewers embrace distinctly liberal attitudes on a range of crucial issues.