Prince George's County Council …

                                  Prince George's County Council
                                            Agenda Item Summary

Meeting Date:          7/15/2008
Reference No.:         CR-071-2008
Draft No.:             1
Proposer(s):           Knotts
Sponsor(s):
Item Title:            A Resolution expressing the County Council's support for the Enough is Enough Campaign
                       for Corporate Responsibility in Entertainment.

Drafter:            Colette R. Gresham, Legislative Officer
Resource Personnel: Betty Horton-Hodge,Legislative Aide

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Date Presented:                                                                 Executive Action:
Committee Referral:                                                             Effective Date:
Committee Action:
Date Introduced:                7/15/2008
Public Hearing:
Council Action:
Council Votes:
Pass/Fail:
Remarks:

AFFECTED CODE SECTIONS:


COMMITTEE REPORTS:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION/FISCAL IMPACT:
(Includes reason for proposal, as well as any unique statutory requirements)
The proposed legislation expresses the County Council's support for the Enough is Enough Campaign for Corporate
Responsibility in Entertainment organized by Reverend Delman L. Coates, Ph.D. and Citizens for Change, Inc. The
Campaign was organized to challenge the corporate sponsorship of lyrical and visual content that promotes negative
and derogatory images of African-American men and women in the entertainment industry.

CODE INDEX TOPICS:


INCLUSION FILES:
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1             COUNTY COUNCIL OF PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND
2                                         2008 Legislative Session

      Resolution No.                           CR-71-2008
      Proposed by                    Council Members Knotts and Bland
      Introduced by
      Co-Sponsors
      Date of Introduction                   July 15, 2008
3
4                                             RESOLUTION
5    A RESOLUTION concerning
6                                       Enough is Enough Campaign
7    For the purpose of expressing the County Council's support for the Enough is Enough Campaign
8    for Corporate Responsibility in Entertainment.
9         WHEREAS, the Enough is Enough Campaign for Corporate Responsibility in
10   Entertainment ("Campaign") organized by Reverend Delman L. Coates, Ph.D., pastor of Mt.
11   Ennon Baptist Church, Clinton, Maryland and Citizens for Change, Inc. is a campaign to protest
12   the commercialization and marketing of negative and derogatory images of African-American
13   men and women in the entertainment industry while recognizing the power of media and
14   entertainment corporations to shape American attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and policies by and
15   about people of color; and
16        WHEREAS, the goals of the Campaign are to 1) encourage the Federal Communications
17   Commission to enforce its congressional mandate to regulate indecency on the public airwaves
18   between 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.; 2) encourage Congress to pass legislation in support of consumer
19   choice in the cable industry that would enable consumers to not choose undesirable networks as
20   a part of their cable packages, or to exclude channels that contain adult, obscene, or indecent
21   material from their basic and extended basic cable packages; 3) encourage media and music
22   companies to develop universal creative standards for the music and videos they produce, market
23   and distribute; 4) encourage corporations that advertise on television and radio stations to
24   develop the same universal standards for the networks on which they place advertising; 5)
25   encourage American consumers, and African-American consumers in particular, not to support
26   entertainment companies and other corporations that market, sponsor, and support material that



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1    does not conform to these standards; and 6) encourage mutual fund managers, pension fund
2    managers, investment bankers, as well as local, state and federal government to divest funds
3    from investments in publicly traded companies that promote, sponsor, and market material that
4    does not conform to these standards; and
5         WHEREAS, the Parents Television Council ("PTC") completed a study commissioned by
6    the Campaign entitled "The Rap on Rap: A Content Analysis of BET and MTV's Daytime
7    Music Video Programming" in April 2008 to assess the quality and degree of adult-themed
8    music video content marketed to and viewed by children; and
9         WHEREAS, the study revealed that daytime music video programming on BET and MTV
10   features sexual, violent, profane and obscene content once every 38 seconds during 14 hours of
11   programming in March 2008 and once every minute during 27.5 hours of programming in
12   December 2007, which accounted for 1,342 instances of offensive/adult content in the 14 hours
13   of programming analyzed during March and 1,647 instances of offensive/adult content in the
14   27.5 hours of programming analyzed during December; and
15        WHEREAS, the PTC's most recent analysis of prime time broadcast TV Family Hour
16   programming revealed an average of 12.5 instances of violent, profane and sexual content per
17   hour, which is equivalent to one instance every 4.8 minutes; and
18        WHEREAS, the Campaign continues to fight against the explicit adult content reaching
19   large numbers of youth and children and voice concern over its impact on our children; and
20        WHEREAS, the Council recognizes that lyrical and visual content that glorifies violence,
21   encourages drug use and drug dealing, sexually objectifies women, and portrays young men as
22   pimps, gangsters, and thugs is a public safety/public health concern for residents of Prince
23   George's County, and is regarded as inappropriate, indecent, and obscene according to
24   contemporary community standards; and
25        WHEREAS, the Campaign is commended for the work it has done to bring attention to this
26   issue as it directly impacts Prince George's County residents.
27        NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the County Council of Prince George's
28   County, Maryland, that the County Council supports the efforts of the Enough is Enough
29   Campaign for Corporate Responsibility in Entertainment and its commitment to removing the
30   negative and derogatory images of African-American men and women in the entertainment
31   industry.



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1    Adopted this    day of            , 2008.
 2                                        COUNTY COUNCIL OF PRINCE
 3                                        GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND
 4
 5
 6
 7                                    BY: _________________________________
 8                                        Samuel H. Dean
 9                                        Chairman
10
11   ATTEST:
12
13
14
15   ______________________________
16   Redis C. Floyd
17   Clerk of the Council




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