One Million Moms Vs TV Land

Just in via email:

TV Land calls their new program "Impastor" an irreverend new comedy. Christians are calling it disgusting! "Impastor" is a show set to air July 15 at 10:30 p.m. ET/9:30 p.m. CT that includes a man stealing someone's identity who happens to be a pastor. The main character, posing as a gay preacher, recently hired sight unseen by a church that was aware of his lifestyle choice, but then start to notice other characteristics not typical of a pastor. The previews which air earlier in the evening are including the pastor having extensive knowledge of the quality of drugs and insinuating sexual relations with fruit such as cantaloupe. The church secretary catches the pastor sleeping around with women and other behaviors not typical of a Christian, much less a pastor.

This show not only depicts pastors in a negative light, but the entire program will also be based on lies about Christianity. TV Land has crossed the line by belittling the Christian religion with foul jokes. We need to send a loud and clear message to TV Land, its owner Viacom, and all potential advertisers of "Impastor" that this kind of programming is insulting and completely unacceptable. TV Land is not ridiculing any other religion currently and wouldn't dream of mocking Mohammed or Muslims. If we speak with one voice now, we can keep this program from ever seeing the light of day. Christians must take a stand and not be silent. Networks like TV Land continue to mock Christianity, and we will not stand for it.

The email ends with a call to deluge TV Land with complaints.

Corporations To SCOTUS: Uneven Marriage Laws Are Burdening Our Business

Thirty major corporations have filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to hear AFER's challenge of Virginia's same-sex marriage ban. On the list: Amazon, CBS, Deutsche Bank, eBay, Intel, General Electric, Levi Strauss, Nike, Oracle, Pfizer, Staples, Target, and Viacom. In general, the brief argues that the nation's uneven patchwork of marriage laws places an undue burden on corporations. An excerpt:

Amici include technology, materials, financial services, pharmaceutical, apparel, and entertainment companies; hoteliers and restaurateurs, service providers, consultants, and designers. Amici all share a desire to attract and retain a talented workforce. We are located or operate in states across the country, some of which recognize marriages of those of our employees whose spouses are of the same sex, and others that prohibit marriages between same-sex couples and refuse to recognize existing same-sex marriages. This dual and continuously shifting regime uniquely burdens amici. This legal uncertainty exposes us, as employers, to unnecessary cost, risk, and administrative complexity. In addition, this irresolution hampers our efforts to recruit and retain the most talented workforce possible, placing us at a competitive disadvantage. Our success depends upon the welfare and morale of all employees, without distinction. The burden imposed by inconsistent state laws of having to administer complicated schemes to account for differential treatment of similarly situated employees creates unnecessary confusion, tension, and ultimately, diminished employee morale.

Hit the link for the full list of corporations.

Porno Pete To MTV: Cancel Dan Savage

"Number One: Dan Savage is a radical and raunchy homosexual activist who gives unhealthy and reckless sex advice. He aggressively works to undermine the historic ethic of marital fidelity by championing the twisted notion that married couples should allow outside sex -- like so many 'monogamish' homosexual male couples do. Incredibly, Savage argues that this would lower the divorce rate.

"Number Two: Savage is an unrepentant cyber-bully who has led a worldwide internet campaign to demonize and destroy Rick Santorum's name -- creating 'Santorum[dot]com' to 're-define' it as the revolting by-product of anal sex. He should NOT be rewarded for this evil crusade, nor held up as a role-model for young people." - Porno Pete LaBarbera, hilariously using the term "number two" in a press release to Viacom.

Viacom Vs. Google

Viacom's billion-dollar lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement is yielding some fascinating details. Even as Viacom was sending Google takedown notices for clips from their shows such as the Colbert Report and the Daily Show, their own marketing teams were posting clips from those very shows and many others. According to a trial claim by YouTube:

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately "roughed up" the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko's to upload clips from computers that couldn't be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users.

Viacom's efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Viacom had made attempts to buy YouTube before Google's successful bid in 2006.

Viacom: Gay Network Logo Will Go Dark During The National Equality March

In what is the largest corporate endorsement of the National Equality March to date, media giant Viacom announced today that Logo, their cable channel for LGBT folks, will "go dark" for four hours as the March takes place in Washington DC on October 11th. Viewers tuning in will see a graphic directing them the Logo-run website 365gay.com for news from the March.

Time-Warner Vs. Viacom

If you subscribe to Time-Warner Cable, you and their 13 million other customers nationwide will lose all of your Viacom channels at midnight tonight as the two media giants continue to spar over a new carriage fees. Viacom wants to raise the charges for Time-Warner to carry their 19 channels, Time-Warner says they're being greedy. Same old, same old.

Among the disappearing channels will be LOGO, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Spike, TV Land, and basic cable's most watched channel, Nickelodeon. (That last one might be particularly annoying for the millions of parents who'll have kids underfoot for the long holiday weekend.)

These disputes tend to be resolved rather quickly once a few hundred thousand complaining customers start flooding cable companies' phonelines. Time-Warner claims they will stand firm this time, but Viacom has posted a YouTube clip inviting pissed off viewers to call the main Time-Warner complaint number.

UPDATE: It gets meaner. Time-Warner will also be blocking Viacom websites so their customers can't watch their shows online.

Viacom Will Know You Watched "2 Girls, 1 Cup"

In a case that has privacy advocates outraged, a federal court has ordered Google to give Viacom the list of videos viewed by every YouTube visitor. Last year Viacom sued YouTube for over $1B, charging them with “massive intentional copyright infringement”.

A US judge has ordered Google to expose to Viacom the video-viewing habits of everyone who has ever used YouTube in a decision condemned by the Internet giant and privacy advocates.

US District Court Judge Louis Stanton backed Viacom's request for data on which YouTube users watch which videos on the website in order to support its case in a billion-dollar copyright lawsuit against Google. Viacom charges Google, which bought YouTube in 2006, acts as a willing accomplice to Internet users who put clips of Viacom's copyrighted television programs on the popular video-sharing website.

"We are disappointed the court granted Viacom's overreaching demand for viewing history," Google senior litigation counsel Catherine Lacavera told AFP in an email Thursday.

Stanton brushed aside privacy concerns on Tuesday while ordering Google to give Viacom log-in names of YouTube users and Internet protocol (IP) addresses identifying which computers they used for viewing videos. Stanton contends that Viacom needs more than pseudonyms and IP numbers that are tantamount to addresses on the Internet to identify individual YouTube users.

Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kurt Opsahl called the court's ruling a significant reversal to privacy rights. The judge's ruling ignores US federal law as well as a "fiasco" that resulted after America Online gave researchers what it thought was anonymous search data, Opsahl said. People's online searches can unintentionally divulge identities even without accompanying onscreen nicknames or IP addresses, according to Opsahl.

TechCrunch suggests that Google deliver the over 12 terabytes of user data in printed form.

Family Affair

LOGO apparently doesn't see any homophobia in Blades Of Glory, as the cast of the movie will host an upcoming episode of the gay cable channel's Click List video countdown show. Of course, that doesn't have anything to do with LOGO and Paramount being sibling Viacom companies. Not at all.