More dirty dancing tapes surface; Public access TV vote delayed

07:28 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 13, 2005

By Doug Miller / 11 News

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Another day, another dirty dancing video from public access TV -- and another complaint from a councilmember collecting tapes.

KHOU

One video shows women performing strip tease dances.

"If that activity isn't allowed in a sexually-oriented business establishments in the City of Houston, how can we pump it into people's homes?" asked Councilmember Addie Wiseman.

And now, Houston's newly elevated Catholic Archbishop has joined the crusade, answering a councilmember's query with a letter saying: "We urge you to vote against any support of funding for public access channels, such as Houston MediaSource, which present obscene material ..."

"There's one legal definition of obscenity, but there's a community definition of obscenity," said Councilmember Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.

"The longer this goes on, the more contentious it's going to be," said Councilmember Gordon Quan.

Now, the mayor and city council have delayed voting on MediaSource's contract for another month.

"We've never spent this much time on the crime lab. We've never spent this much time on women who come and say that they've been attacked, or whatever. We, we don't ... It's amazing," complained Councilmember Ada Edwards.

"You can't stop people from complaining. And, you know, I've never met anyone who's been forced to watch TV," said Mayor Bill White.

Now, after all this controversy over all this naked booty shaking, the mayor says he might shake up the board of directors that runs Houston's access TV channel.

The mayor also says he's frustrated City Council is spending so much time on this issue. But the fact that he and the council are delaying the vote means they'll spend another month arguing about access TV.