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The Parents Television Council is not just upset about the explicit content on Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, but also at Miley Cyrus wasting opportunity to use the event in a “positive” way president Tim Winter tells Gossip Cop exclusively.
Gossip Cop, who exclusively spoke with Winter last month following the announcement that Cyrus would be hosting the 2015 VMAs, phoned the advocate again on Monday morning to get his candid take on how the ceremony played out. First, however, Winter made clear that he and his team didn’t go into the broadcast with the highest expectations, especially given the explicit promos Cyrus and MTV released over the last few weeks.
“It was clear from the outset what MTV wanted. It was clear what Miley represented,” Winter tells Gossip Cop. “I don’t think the promos did much more than validate our concerns.” The council ultimately had people on both sides of the country tuning in to watch the East and West Coast feeds, which did have some differences. Cyrus’ nip slip, for instance, was edited out of the Pacific time broadcast, but of course, the damage was already done, and living on the Internet.
Winter will have his “trained entertainment media analysts” re-watch the entire show on Monday to make “formal counts” of every drug reference and the like, but when asked right now for the VMAs lowest moment, he sighs, “We have plenty to choose from.” He goes on to admit, “I understand there are times when people want to reach low and maybe’s there’s an audience for it and there’s a time when it’s the right thing to do.” But there’s a simple reason why Winter believes this wasn’t the time or place for some of Cyrus’ antics, which included repeated mentions of weed.
“The ubiquitous messaging of drugs or drug use as something positive and something to laugh at is wholly inappropriate for people as young as 14. It’s a gross violation of the spirit and the letter of the content-rating system,” he tells Gossip Cop, explaining that MTV “chose” to give the VMAs a TV-14 rating “even though they had content I think most parents would find absolutely outrageous.”
As Gossip Cop previously reported, Winter had wanted to see the program be aired with a TV-MA rating, something he rightly predicted they wouldn’t do because sponsors would create a “financial conflict of interest.” But in his eyes, the network didn’t just bungle the VMAs’ categorization. He believes both Cyrus and MTV missed the chance to positively influence the young people who were watching.
“They had a great platform to do something positive. Last year, Miley won the award for ‘Wrecking Ball’ and she had somebody go up and accept the award to bring attend to the homeless problem, and rather than using her platform this year for something positive, we learned that she really likes marijuana,” says Winter.
Asked about Cyrus’ contention that being provocative helps her draw attention to important causes, Winter sniffs, “It doesn’t pass the laugh test.” He adds, “It’s her life, it’s her world, she can do what she pleases. She had an opportunity to do something positive, and I think she went the other way. And MTV enabled the whole thing purely for their wallet.”
For the record, Winter acknowledges that the Parents Television Council did not reach out to Cyrus before the event to discuss appropriate content, despite its concerns. As for MTV, “Our private conversations with the networks are exactly that,” he tells Gossip Cop. As reported earlier, the PTC also released a statement blasting the VMAs for its “blatant sexualization.” TELL US: What do you think of the Parents Television Council’s reaction to the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards?
