A TV watchdog group says U.S. television shows transmit negative references about marriage, emphasizing sex between unmarried partners about four times more often than wedded couples.
The non- profit conservative group Parents Television Council, released a report on Tuesday entitled "Happily Never After", showing the largest number of references to sex outside marriage was found in the evenings, at prime-time hours, when children are most likely to watch.
The PTC report examined all scripted prime-time TV shows on the main broadcast networks for four weeks in the fall.
The council said they wished to see more positive examples of matrimony, not more examples of married couples having sex.
"The anti-marriage bias in some of these programs is so transparent it's almost comical," said Melissa Henson, PTC's spokeswoman, according to Reuters.
Henson depicted a storyline in the ABC comedy "Desperate Housewives," in which a husband and wife get divorced and then again have sexual relationships as divorced persons, enjoying it more than when they were married.
It was found that ABC had the most negative references to marital sex of any network.
Surprisingly, TV Watch, broadcast network-coalition, discounted the study's methods and findings.
"What we're talking about is subjective, and it's subjective for parents depending on their values and their kids' age," said Jim Dyke, TV Watch executive director, according to Reuters
The Parents Television Council study found that references to adultery outnumbered references to marital sex on the networks by a ratio of 2-1.
