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August 21, 2006
Add color, remove smoke: Turner classic moves
Two complaints by one viewer in the Old Smoke have prompted Turner Broadcasting to scour its 1,500-title Hanna-Barbera catalog of images of smoking. Writes Mike Collett-White for Reuters, "The review was triggered by a complaint to British media regulator Ofcom by one viewer who took offence to two episodes of "Tom and Jerry" shown on the Boomerang channel, part of Turner Broadcasting which itself belongs to Time Warner Inc. 
"We are going through the entire catalog," Yinka Akindele, spokeswoman for Turner in Europe said... "This is a voluntary step we've taken in light of the changing times," she said, adding that the painstaking review had been prompted by the Ofcom complaint." The offenses, reports Reuters? In "Texas Tom," the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the second, "Tennis Chumps," Tom's opponent in a match smokes a large cigar." ... Akindele said cartoons would only be modified "where smoking could be deemed to be cool or glamorized," and that scenes where a villain was featured with a cigarette or cigar would not necessarily be cut. "These are historic cartoons, they were made well over 50 years ago in a different time and different place... Our audience is children and we don't want to be irresponsible."
Posted by Ray Pride at August 21, 2006 04:03 PM
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