OTTAWA – Airing a show that features swearing and drunken boating should not be on the air the same time kids are watching Saturday morning TV, says the CBSC.
At 10 a.m. Saturday, May 27th, Global Television aired a show called fatbluesky which "included instances of the f-word and scenes of a man drinking beer while driving a speedboat," says a release from the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
This decision, released Wednesday, was a no-brainer.
The CBSC’s National Conventional Television Panel concluded that Global violated the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics for broadcasting the episode way before the Watershed hour of 9 pm and for failing to include viewer advisories during the broadcast.
The magazine-style program is targeted at young people and focuses on action sports and the related lifestyles and subcultures. At one point during a segment that day, the skateboarder was heard using the f-word. Another segment in the episode centred on a man who makes his living fishing. He used the f-word repeatedly as well and was also shown driving his speedboat while continually drinking beer. At one point he addressed the camera directly and encouraged the youth audience to behave like him.
Global agreed with the complainant that the episode had been inappropriate and pulled the program. The CBSC Panel nonetheless reviewed the complaint and found Global in obvious violation.
