The Parents Television Council wants to make sure that Kevin Martin’s ideas on indecent broadcast enforcement carry through to the next generation of FCC commissioners, and is urging its membership to talk to their senator about it.
“Three seats on the five-member commission are soon to be filled: The President’s pick for Chairman, Julius Genachowski — about whom we know very little, especially regarding his intent to enforce decency standards — will almost certainly be confirmed by the Senate before the August recess. Senate Republicans will decide who will fill the remaining two seats. Before that decision is made, your senators need to hear from you! They need to know that you, as owners of the broadcast airwaves, are demanding FCC Commissioners who will take a stand against indecency, and will vigorously enforce decency standards on the broadcast airwaves.”
PTC also asks that its members expand outside their own state (if applicable) and contact Senate leaders Harry Reid (D-NV) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
“We’ve already made tremendous strides this year with two recent Supreme Court victories supporting FCC Indecency enforcement! But those victories, as important as they were, are tenuous, and so much will depend on the new leadership of the FCC. We can’t afford to backslide now! There is far too much at stake. We must dig in and ensure the FCC continues to act in the interest of the American people by holding broadcasters accountable for how they use the public airwaves.”
RBR/TVBR observation: Broadcasters are notorious for doing everything they can think of to appeal to as many people as humanly possible – in short, they are targeting the mainstream. The fact that PTC finds broadcast fare so objectionable while almost nobody else seems to only shows that PTC is well outside the mainstream.
Also, we do know a few things about Genachowski – he is concerned enough about the content of children’s programming and the content of other programming available to them that he is a co-founder of Common Sense, another children’s programming watchdog that just happens to be a bit less rabid than PTC, while seeming to agree on many matters (as do we agree with PTC every now and again).
Finally, there are four, not three Commission seats in question at the moment. The Democrats have nominated Mignon Clyburn along with Genachowski, and the most recent viable-seeming rumor on Republican nominees looks like it will be former acting NTIA chief Meredith Atwell Baker joining Robert McDowell, who is thought to be getting another term.
