Salty language on public access TV shocks city leader

05:17 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 29, 2005

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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A Houston city council member stayed up late one night watching the access channel on TV and she didn't like what she saw and heard. Now she's stirred up a controversy at City Hall and stalled passage of the $800,000 budget for Houston's MediaSource channel.

Just about anybody can do just about anything on Houston's public access TV.

KHOU

"We welcome controversial programming," said Pat Darlinghouse, Houston MediaSource Executive Director.

"It's four in the morning. I have nothing to do," said one teen recently on his own self-made TV program.

Shows like his pop up on Houston MediaSource all the time.

And sometimes the language gets rough.

"This handful is a bunch of programs that could have objectionable language," said Eric Marques, MediaSource programming coordinator.

"We welcome controversial programming. We have, gosh, upwards to a thousand shows a month," said Pat Darlinghouse, Houston MediaSource Executive Director.

But one of the tapes they played overnight upset a city council member.

"Obscenity. The most obscene language that I've heard in a long, long time," said Houston City Council Member Addie Wiseman. "In fact, I don't think I've ever heard anything quite so obscene."

"What this really is a censorship issue," argued Council Member Mark Goldberg.

So council members have delayed the MediaSource budget, even though some of them think the controversy's a little silly.

"Election time is coming up in November. There's not enough talk about, you know, the re-election for City Council. And this helps generate some extra talk," said Goldberg.

Houston MediaSource's money does not come from city taxpayers. It comes from cable TV bills.

In other words, if you subscribe to cable TV in Houston, you're paying for public access TV. And city council members can't just take the money away from Media Source and spend it on something else. That money's dedicated for public access TV.

Nonetheless, Houston Media Source leaders will probably be called to a special meeting where council members will take a second look at what's on TV.