Just wrote a letter to Direct TV after watching Crocodile Diaries

[ehrnst]

We have Direct TV and my husband and I Tivo a select few programs for my 4 year old son to watch.

I have seen that the Rated G series Crocodile Diaries on Animal Planet does not have sugar cereal ads, or other such crap. We only tivo shows that are shown in prime time, so that we can avoid late night type commercials aimed at adults.

But I watched an episode with him that we Tivoed that aired at 6:00 pm on Thursday and saw 6 (SIX) promos for other Direct TV programming with content that was graphic, violent, disturbing and nightmare inducing that had us scrambling for the remote. THANK GOD we did not let him watch it alone.

We saw ads for "Ghost Rider" "Crime Stories" "The Yosemite Killer" and "Homicide Drifter" (After my son went to bed, we veiwed them and noted the titles.)

I wrote the following letter to Direct TV:

"I am appalled at the violent ads for programs that are not G rated that I saw during an episode (RATED G) of the Crocodile Hunter that aired Thursday night at 6:00 pm.

I have a 4 year old son, and I was VERY disturbed at the NUMEROUS graphic promotional ads for Crime Stories, The Homicide Drifter, the Yosemite Killer and Ghost Rider.

The content of these ads is NOT appropriate for the intended audience of Rated G programming, and Parental controls are useless in this case.

I am seriously thinking of moving to Fios, and will if I continue to see more such promotion during rated G programming on Direct TV."

If you have the same concerns, you can contact them at:

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/customer/howToReachUs.jsp

[ehrnst]

1. Talked on the phone to the Direct TV folks

They say that Animal Planet determines all the ads during their shows, but these ads were for Direct TV channels.

In any case, you can write to Animal Planet voicing your concerns about this at:

http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations