Public Loses Twice: FCC Promotes Indecency, Then Censors It
By Peggy Charren and Jonathan Rintels
Mediachannel.org
WASHINGTON, December 13, 2004 -- FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell's December 3, 2004 Op-Ed on indecency in The New York Times fails to address his own responsibility for both the escalating amount of indecent content on the public airwaves and the heated controversy over how to deal with it.
Mr. Powell championed changes to FCC regulatory policies to permit a handful of media conglomerates to dominate the publicly-owned airwaves. One of the consequences of those changes is indecent programming. The Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl, brought to America by the Viacom-owned combination of game broadcaster CBS and half-time producer MTV, dramatically demonstrated what's good for the media conglomerates' bottom line is too often programming that is "bottom of the barrel."
Independent program producers and independent locally-owned stations were once important restraints on the networks' tendency to push objectionable programming to boost their ratings. But FCC "deregulation" allowed media conglomerates to eliminate both independent producers and many locally-owned affiliates. The result is an increase in objectionable programming. Not only does Mr. Powell show no signs of rethinking these indecency-inducing policies, last year he pushed further "deregulation" through the FCC to permit even greater concentration. Fortunately for the American public, a federal Court of Appeals stopped the rules from taking effect.
Mr. Powell claims the "rant" (his word, remarkably) over the Commission's indecency policy is unjustified because the FCC issued indecency policy guidelines in 2001 and each new Commission ruling since then "clarifies what is prohibited." Tell that to the citizens who were denied the opportunity to see "Saving Private Ryan" on Veterans Day. Even though the FCC found that "Ryan" had not violated its indecency regulations after its telecast in 2001, broadcasters in 2004 feared the Commission's newly expanded indecency policies might subject them to fines for its rough language and violence. That's clarity?
Regrettably, Mr. Powell eschews many less restrictive alternatives than censorship to the problem of what some consider objectionable material. For example, while the FCC's website enthusiastically heralds the advent of digital television, important information about television ratings, the V Chip, and other ways parents might avoid content that offends them is far less prominent.
And Mr. Powell evinces little interest in solutions short of censorship that would empower consumers and parents to avoid objectionable content, such as permitting them to not subscribe to cable channels they may find objectionable. Moreover, he exaggerates the numbers of those actually complaining about indecent programming by failing to require that indecency complainers verify they actually saw the offending program.
As Jeff Jarvis, former TV critic for TV Guide discovered, the 159 indecency complaints received by the FCC concerning a Fox show turned out to be three form letters sent repeatedly by pressure groups. That Fox show drew an FCC fine of $1.2 million.
Mr. Powell has got his responsibilities under the First Amendment backwards. Over tremendous public protest, he foisted upon the American public an excessively-concentrated media that restricts free expression.
Then, when that excessively-concentrated media inevitably produces indecent material, he censors it. The public loses both ways. Rather than criticize the legitimate outcry against his heavy-handed policies as "rant," Mr. Powell would do well to consider the words offered to another well-intentioned but ultimately misguided public servant in Julius Caesar; "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."
-- Jonathan Rintels is the Executive Director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media . Peggy Charren founded Action for Children's Television (ACT) in 1968, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Center for Creative Voices in Media.
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Public Loses Twice: FCC Promotes Indecency, Then Censors It
