Why All The Broadcasters Are Bending Over
Jeff Jarvis explains why 1994 was the last time a broadcaster challenged an FCC ruling:
Why? Well, because the FCC holds the broadcasters by their shrunken balls. The FCC holds it in its power to not only fine them but revoke their licenses and shut down their businesses -- as the FCC warned it would do in its Bono F-word decision.And that, ladies and gentlemen, is precisely why 66 stations in this great nation refused to air Saving Private Ryan: They had been told by the FCC that airing the F word was illegal and could cost them their businesses.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is also why Viacom just castrated itself by paying a $3.5 million consent decree with the FCC that includes all kinds of onorous clauses and why the dickless Clear Channel settled its fines ... and why every broadcaster has settled every fine for a damned decade.
Thus, the First Amendment never gets its day in court. Thus, the fined broadcasters -- not to mention we, the people -- never get the chance to test the constitutionality of what the FCC is doing to free speech in this nation.
As for what the rest of us should be doing...
But in all fairness, it's not just the broadcasters who should be fighting.Newspaper editorialists should have been defending the First Amendment when the FCC was going after Howard Stern. They didn't. They waited until they went after Private Ryan.
We on the internet should be fighting the FCC -- for they'll come after us next.
There is still a chance. Only 22 members of the House had the balls to vote for free speech and against the indecent indecency bill. The rest sang soprano because they didn't want to go home and be accused of voting for smut. Well, we need to give them cover. We need to pressure them to vote for free speech and the First Amendment and the Constitution and everything America holds holy.
So let's hear it, TV and radio executives and personalities. Let's hear it, editorialists. Let's hear it, journalists. Let's hear it, cable executives (they want to get you, too). Let's hear it, satellite executives (they want to get you, too). Let's hear it, internet executives. Let's hear it, bloggers.
It's time to fight back.
Great piece. Kinda off topic here, but I'm curious, does anybody think Stern's going to outerspace radio will start a revolution against airwave radio? Somehow, I don't think so.
Curtis at December 2, 2004 8:02 PM
Several spectra for airwave (analog) radio are global in their reach, penetrating the sorts of communities that can't afford to hop over to Best Buy for a new digital set every time Sony comes up with something new. Analog broadcast media are going to be with us for a very long time.
Of course, in 1981 I told my mother that CDs wouldn't make headway in the marketplace for decades.
I think the FCC is full of shit 'n' all, but with all these other media available, maybe we should just let John Q. and the Missus out there in the Christian trailer parks do what they want with sexless broadcast channels. It's getting a little hard for Jarvis to pretend that more diverse and ribald needs are not met elsewhere.
Cridland at December 3, 2004 4:33 AM
There. That's what I meant before the last election. It's not the big men in the big offices that affect you the most. It's the little boys and girls in the little offices that get to you. The little offices that answer to no one. Oh, sometimes the big men come out yelling about one thing or another, but the thousands upon thousands of everyday decisions that close businesses, shut down construction projects, fine radio broadcasters, barricade highways, deny access to open spaces, these decisions come out of the mouths of little people in little offices. Not elected, and not answerable to the populace. They do good, they do bad, all depending on your likes, dislikes, and their ability to shut you down personally. And it all works down to the clerks with the smirks at your local fill in the blank govt agency.
Rail at will, but know that you're railing at sluggo bureaucrats with no reason to listen. They do not take their marching orders from anyone, unless they feel like it. Go ahead and threaten their jobs. They know damn well they can easily hook another job at another govt agency. Or go to work for one of their prior corporate victims who would love to have one the insiders greasing the skids for them.
allan at December 4, 2004 4:25 PM