Albany council mulls condemnation of ‘Jersey Shore’ December 17, 2009 at 9:41 am by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist Update: We’ve added comments from Councilman Sano throughout.
Amid the crush of end-of-the-year legislation the Albany Common Council will consider Monday night is this resolution offered by 9th Ward Councilman James Sano calling for the cancellation of the MTV’s controversial reality show “Jersey Shore.”
Councilman James Sano
Sano, an active member of the Italian American Community Center on Washington Avenue Extension, is offering the non-binding measure to voice the council’s displeasure with the show’s perceived negative portrayal of Italian Americans as “ignorant, violent, self-centered and lewd.”
“They’re preying on the weakest and most pathetic part of our society,” Sano said of the network, “and in this case a degenerative part, a lost part, of our Italian-American youth.”
He questioned why the a show wouldn’t feature young Italian Americans excelling in life — at college, at work or in the military.
While the controversy over the show began with its cast — a rowdy, hard-drinking group of young Italian Americans who refer to themselves as “guidos” and “guidettes” partying at summer house in Seaside Heights, N.J. — it pretty much exploded when the cable network previewed an upcoming show with a clip a man (later identified as a Long Island gym teacher) punching one of the female cast members in a bar. (Disclaimer: This link leads to a video of the punch, so click at your own risk…)
MTV later pulled that segment, but the maelstrom surrounding the show hasn’t abated, with several Italian American groups condemning it and Domino’s asking the cable network not to air its pizza commercials during the show.
Sano — with his children away at college — said he hadn’t heard of the show until Friday, when he heard from a constituent and then a fellow member of the community center. He finally saw it Sunday and didn’t like what he saw.
“I was watching it, and it seemed like a lot of the usual MTV fair: Let’s watch a bunch of drunken louts go through their night,” Sano said, noting you’ll find good and bad in any ethnic, cultural or religious background. “How many times do we have to see the same garbage? This thing, it’s the same tried and true degenerative formula with them. And this time we have guidos and guidettes.
“You could make it Lake George for God’s sakes,” he added. “You introduce alcohol and you put a bunch of hormone-ravaged people together, stuff’s going to happen.”
He said as someone of some prominence in the community, it’s his obligation to say something. He also noted that resolutions don’t take much of the council’s time.
“Who’s going to speak up for the community?”
The resolution calls Italian Americans the second-largest ethnic group in the city of Albany and notes that they have “contributed greatly to its success.”
It also notes a study by the Italian Institute that concluded 73 percent of the depictions of Italians on film between 1928 and 2000 were negative.
“THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Common Council of the City of Albany goes on record condemning the constant demeaning and demoralizing stereotyping of Italian-Americans by the media and the entertainment industry’s negative and unfair stereotyping of Italian-Americans and ask MTV to cancel further programming and showing of “Jersey Shore.”
Sano wasn’t at last night’s council caucus when the measure was first addressed, but we’ll reach out to him today.
It appeared as though few, if any, of the lawmakers had seen the show.
In recent months, Sano — a physical education teacher in the city school district — was also mentioned by the The New York Times for another resolution he offered (and which the council passed) urging the federal government to consider forgiving student loan debt as part of the economic recovery effort.
ALL those shows should be cancelled....why just zero in on 1 dumba$$ show.......how about southpark? who cares.......???? There will be alot of 'prohibition' going on if folks TRULY felt this way...... Parents-----YOU ARE IN CHARGE.......the world WILL NOT mold to you or your kids......the view of the world by your child is what is important.......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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