Wyandotte

Letter from The Committee for TWO Catholic Channels

To Wyandotte Mayor & City Council from Debbie Bloomfield

March 8, 2001

Dear Mayour and City Council

For 17 months I have been regularly attending the meetings of the Municipal Service Commission. My purpose (and that of those who sometimes come with me) is to improve the moral climate of television in Wyandotte.

We started by requesting more representation for faith based programming. When we had 40 channels, religious programming was 5% (2 channels). It is only 2.8% now that we have 70 channels. To bring that representation closer to the 5% again, we continue to request a second catholic channel.

When the contract for MTV and VH-1 expired, we fought hard to prevent its renewal. There is nothing uplifing about that programming. Your are responsible for allowing the minds of young people in our city to be polluted with sexually degrading and violent images, music and lyrics. You are working against parents who struggle to supervise the television viewing of teenagers (and Younger). It is impossible for many parents who do not that the time to "watch television" while maintaining a home and working.

A pastor commented to larry King following the shootings at Santana High School in California this week, that no community can protect itself any more from outside influences because of television, radio, movies, and the internet. But that does not mean we shouldn't try to limit the exposure of our children!

In the mean time, you have approved a price increase for cable tv of $4 per month because the royalties have increased! How much will you save by deleting MTV and perhaps even VH-1 (which is almost as bad and almost as little liked)? As a commission you have the responsibility to review no only the expenses vs. income, but the responsibility to give us GOOD choices for our family television viewing.

Although the November 2000 Cable TV survey is not scientific, it is the only tool we presently have. That survey bears out the concern of adults in Wyandotte. MTV was the least desired channel. For 549 people (almost half of those who responded), MTV was amoung the least liked channels. And we are paying for it, like it or not! Now is the time to act on the wishes of your customers and remove MTV from Wyandotte's Cable TV line-up.

Then, to improve the fiscal picture, add EWTN (which was requested 4th when the game show and golf channels which are already on digital are eliminated). It is FREE: no royalties at all. It should be added to the $14.95 broadcast basic tier. That will be a great service to some of our elderly citizens on fixed incomes.

We have tried to work directly with you. Other cities have to go through their City Councils. Perhaps it is time to bring this concern to the Wyandotte City Council. Our other options include changing to satellite rather than cable or simply stopping our cable service. We hope that won't be necessary.

You are all invited to attend the program Morality and the Media at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00 p.m. Teresa Tomeo, local noted broadcast journalist, will speak and the video MTV Examined will be shown. It is free and open to the public. Please join us.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Deborah Bloomfield and
The Committee for TWO Catholic Channels in Wyandotte