UTV alters policy after program

University Television officials will put stricter controls on what goes over the air and what goes on in the studio after controversy over what the station termed a "blatantly offensive" talk show. Officials Friday changed station policy to ban alcohol in the studio and proposed to give the UTV program director power to pull the plug in the middle of a live show, Production Manager Kirk Marcolina said last night. Taped shows would have to be viewed by the production director in advance. The executive committee canceled the program and fired the producers and hosts of the program -- College senior Richard Rothstein and Wharton senior Vincent Fumo -- because of their behavior on the show. During the 45-minute premiere, shown last Tuesday, Rothstein and Fumo discussed oral sex in graphic detail, displayed both male and female centerfolds from Playgirl and D-Cup magazines, and called first-year women whose pictures appeared in the Freshmen Record. During the show, Fumo and Rothstein each downed numerous shots of tequila. UTV said they fired the two because they could have damaged UTV's equipment. The alcohol ban in the studio became effective immediately after Friday's board meeting. At the meeting Friday, the board proposed that the program director sit in on all live shows and terminate broadcasts if he or she deems it necessary. Criticism of the show intensified after the publication of a partial transcript in a Friday Daily Pennsylvanian editorial. Because UTV can be seen only in Superblock dormitories, many students were not familiar with the show's content until they read the DP account. Several students said last night that the show was shocking and offensive. "I thought it was definitely in poor taste and the humor was pathetic," College sophomore Elana Horden, who viewed the show, said last night. "The other [UTV] shows were pretty disgusting also, but this one was unbelievably disgusting." Some students said last night that although Rothstein and Fumo had a right to express their opinions, they should not have said them on the air. "You can't step on other peoples' rights in order to get a joke out of it," College freshman Dana Lynch said. "They have a right to say it, but they shouldn't do it publicly." Associate Communications Professor Carolyn Marvin, who teaches a course on freedom of expression, said last night that while the printed transcripts she read were were offensive, UTV's right to broadcast the show should be questioned only if the DP's right to publish the transcript is also questioned. "I think the DP did a service by printing a portion of the transcript so that the campus could discuss it," Marvin said. "But if we were to say that UTV could not broadcast that portion, we would also have to say that the DP could not print it." Pig Penn has received media coverage in Philadelphia and throughout Pennsylvania due in part to the fact that Fumo is the son of State Senator Vincent Fumo (D-Phila.) Matthew Hilk contributed to this story.

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