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Chapman wants self-policing to curb indecency
As he prepares to co-chair the NAB's Responsible Broadcasting Task Force (4/20/04 TVBR Daily Epaper #77) with Susquehanna Radio's David Kennedy, LIN Television CEO Gary Chapman is touting self-restraint as the best course for the industry to pursue. "Our objective is to go back to the government, go back to the FCC and tell them that we are able to self-police ourselves," Chapman said when the issue came up in his company's quarterly conference call.
"Hopefully we'll be able to bring back the code," Chapman said, referring to the NAB Radio and Television Codes, which were abandoned during the Carter administration due to a federal court ruling that provisions pertaining to allowable advertising time violated antitrust laws. But he noted that congressional action may be required to allow that.
If there is to be a new code, Chapman said it would likely contain guidelines pertaining to language, nudity, obscenity and indecency. "We would hope that by coming together and putting ourselves under the self-imposed ethics that the government would feel that it would not be compelled to throw in a bunch of regulations that we may not like," he added.
As reported Wednesday (4/28/04 TVBR Daily Epaper #83), LIN has become the first TV group to mandate the use of delay systems for all live segments of its local news programming to prevent running afoul of the FCC's indecency crackdown.
Click here to listen to what Chapman had to say yesterday on the subject of indecency.
TVBR observation:
Self-policing is a good thing, but from what we're hearing on Capitol Hill, it's not going to rein in lawmakers who are making political hay out of the indecency issue. The politicians are after votes and the big, bad broadcasters are an easy target. They're putting pressure on the FCC, which has thrown the rulebook out the window and is handing out fines with wild abandon - - never mind that many wouldn't stand up in court. But there's another problem with bringing back the NAB Code. As we pointed out a few weeks ago (4/5/04 TVBR Daily Epaper #66), the big TV networks and their associated radio groups aren't NAB members anymore, so what good is a code if it doesn't cover many of the industry's biggest players?
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