New Jersey's Italian-American lawmakers are stepping up their campaign to wash up MTV's Jersey Shore. After dispatching a complaint to MTV, which airs the reality show, and getting little satisfaction, Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, chairman of the New Jersey Italian American Legislative Caucus, has called for a probe by the state's labor department into possible labor violations that may have occurred during the show's production. The complaints by Vitale and other Italian-American leaders in New Jersey that the show engages in ethnic stereotyping have not fallen on deaf ears. Last week Dell became the third advertiser to pull out of the show, following the lead of American Family Insurance and Dominos. But the controversy has only succeeded in attracting attention to the show and, in the process, boosting its ratings. In today's (Monday) New York Observer, columnist Christopher Rosen concedes that he was initially reluctant to watch Jersey Shore . His conclusion after he did "This show -- which is quite possibly the beginning of the 2012 apocalypse -- is hilarious, ridiculous and impossible to turn away from." TheWrap.com columnist Ilana Angel wrote Sunday "The girls are trashy, the boys are sleazy and it is the most divine hour of reality television." But Sharon Waxman, who runs TheWrap.com, was quoted by London's Sunday Independent as saying that Jersey Shore "follows a long line of freak shows. ... We are witnessing the Jerry Springer-ization of American culture."
28/12/2009
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