PBS ALTERATIONS TO MEDICI WEB SITE, "COSMETIC AND SUPERFICIAL," SONS OF ITALY CHARGES
Press
Contact: Kylie Cafiero, (202) 547-2900 kcafiero@osia.org
WASHINGTON, April 14, 2004
The
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) has revised
its interactive Web site on the Medicis, but
the site still presents members of this Italian
Renaissance family as violent and immoral,
charges the Order Sons of Italy in America
(OSIA).
March
18, OSIA was informed of changes to the Medici
Web site in letters from both PBS President
Pat Mitchell and Ron Devillier, president of
Devillier, Donegan Enterprises (DDE), the documentary
production company that co-produced the series
and the Web site.
Mitchell
and Devillier were responding to OSIA's complaint
about the site sent to both executives and
PBS Board Chairman Alberto Ibarguen on Feb.
18.
OSIA took action after PBS aired
nationally in February its four-part series, The
Medicis: Godfathers of the Renaissance and
launched the related Web site, www.pbs.org/empires/medici.
The series presents the Medicis as Mafia chieftains
while the related Web site, www.pbs.org/empires/medici states "the
Medicis clawed their way to the top, sometimes
through bribery, corruption and violence."
The
Medici Web site fails to point out that this
famous family acquired power through many means
that included business loans, real estate,
political patronage and good relations with
the powerful. The
same tools are used today in business and politics
in this country and the rest of the world.
Complaints
from OSIA, other organizations and concerned
viewers prompted PBS to change its Web site,
but the changes are "cosmetic
and superficial," according to OSIA.
They
consist largely of re-wording the titles to
some sections while leaving the sections themselves
unchanged. For example,
the section How
to be a Medieval Mobster is now called Snapshots:
The Medicis, but the text still presents
the Medici biographies as police rap sheets.
The
former Guys and Dolls section has
been renamed Private Lives, but the
contents still contain the same lurid descriptions
of the reported sex lives of the Medicis and
the Popes, including such gratuitous details
as "young boys leaping naked from cakes" and
a woman "famously impregnated" by a
Medici.
OSIA
also examined the Web sites that PBS and DDE
created for the documentaries on the civilizations
of Egypt, Greece, Islam and Japan among others. None
of these Web sites uses scandalous and salacious
details to attract and engage young minds or
pander to pop culture.
April
13 the Commission for Social Justice (CSJ),
OSIA's anti-defamation arm, contacted PBS and
DDE, telling them the changes did not go far
enough and urging them to give the Medicis
the same objective treatment given the historical
figures on the other sites that make up the
PBS "Empires" series.
"We are prepared to advise our supporters
as well as the larger American viewing audience
to take note of PBS's failure to correct this
situation and to remove their support of PBS," says
CSJ National President Albert De Napoli, Esq.
The
PBS Web site is the most visited "dot.org" site
in the world, according to PBS.
Concerned individuals may contact PBS and DDE
at the addresses below.
Ms.
Pat Mitchell, President and CEO
Public Broadcasting System
1320 Braddock Place
Alexandria, VA 22314
Ron
Devillier, President and CEO
Devillier, Donegan Enterprises
4401 Connecticut NW (#601)
Washington, DC 20008
Alberto Ibarguen
PBS
Board Chairman & Publisher, Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132-1693
OSIA
is the largest and oldest national organization
for men and women of Italian descent
in the United States. Established in
1905, OSIA has more than 600,000 members
and supporters and a network of more
than 745 chapters coast to coast.
OSIA
works at the community, national and international
levels to promote the heritage and culture of an
estimated 26 million Italian Americans, the nation’s
fifth largest ethnic group, according to the U.S.
Census Bureau. To learn more, visit OSIA on the
Web at www.osia.org.
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