While the complaints have been reported, the nature and extent of those complaints have not. Here it goes: Three of the six complaints--yes, just six, with two from the suburbs of Sammamish and Federal Way--center on protecting children. Though no children have seen the Mike Hunt TV show, at least according to the complaints, the letters pointed out that children could see it if they were awake at 1:00 a.m. "Sadly we have had nieces and nephews ages 9-10 who on school vacation sleep over, and while channel surfing they could find this on TV. Hideous," one Federal Way complainant wrote, while another said, "My family works very hard to stay away from that type of programming."
The other complaints referenced obscenity law and attempted to mount a legal argument against Mike Hunt TV. "There is outrageous pornographic material on public access TV right now that actually shows obscene intercourse and explicit sexual content… It goes beyond the scope of free speech and violates FCC rules and it is unethical by any standard," wrote a viewer from Sammamish (arguably outside of SCAN's "community," given that the station operates under a contract with the city of Seattle).
Once SCAN took action against Aivaz, more viewers flooded SCAN with comments. While 4 more people dissed the Mike Hunt TV show, 36 people gave the thumbs up on Aivaz' program, with comments like, "Please don't take our Mike." The show is popular: 60 out of 174 respondents in SCAN's 2004 online viewer survey named Mike Hunt TV as their favorite SCAN program (followed by Democracy Now, with 16 votes). One Aivaz supporter concluded that "as a viewer, if I don't want to watch something, I can turn it off," while another asked "what are kids doing up at one in the morning?" Aivaz' show is still on the air, sans porn clips. "This week we will be showing instructional video on 'how to give a proper spanking,'" says Aivaz, who says the obscenity controversy "isn't over yet!"
