This lawyer says FCC Chairman Michael Powell has changed his tune.
I think that John King (12/17/04 RBR #245) is right on the money in his assessment of the Media Bureau's terse letter rejection of Saul Levine's petition for rule making relative to applying indecency "standards" (assuming that you can legitimately use that term to describe what the FCC has in place) to SDARS.
The notion which underlies the Bureau's ruling is that there can and should be two different standards of First Amendment protection - - one for broadcast, one for other content delivery media, such as satellite. A propos of that notion, I thought you might be amused by the following excerpt from a 1998 speech which I ran across recently:
"I do not believe that the growing convergence of technology will allow us to continue to maintain two First Amendment standards, one for broadcasting and one for every other communications medium. Technology has evaporated any meaningful distinctions among distribution media, making it unsustainable for the courts to segregate broadcast for First Amendment purposes. . . . We must admit to these new realities and quit subverting the Constitution in order for the government to be free to impose its speech preferences on the public."
That speech, prepared for delivery more than six years ago, was by none other than then-Commissioner, now-Chairman Michael Powell.
Harry F. Cole
Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, P.L.C.
Arlington, VA
Indecency is always a hot topic...
Wanted to voice my opinion on this...now keep in mind I come from Soft Rock conservative A/C radio in the Bible belt to boot, and really am amused as to what all the concern is about. When all is said and done it's just a word. Words really hurt no one. It's the intent (and the people that use them) that hurt others. Using the Fword, or any word just for the sake of using it accomplishes nothing. So why use it? I think many use it (and many other words) in the radio and TV industry just to shock people in hope of attaining high ratings, which hopefully translates to revenue for their respective companies and themselves. One thing we really should remember...you don't have to use offensive words to entertain and attain ratings. The key is to really target your listener/viewer and give them what they want, not what you think they want, and most of the time it won't even be an issue. Let's focus on things that matter, not words. There was a time when the FCC forced those kinds of issues...I think those times are long gone, and it's really the people who own the airwaves that ultimately have suffered with poor programming.
Mike Padgett
Soft Rock 98.5 WTFM RADIO
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
