2007_06_01_archive

Indecency

Court Overturns Flawed FCC Indecency Decisions

The U.S. Court of Appeals decides that the Golden Globes case

(remembered as the Bono F-word case) and other cases of indecency were

unlawful due to their arbitrary nature. This decision lifts the overly

broad restrictions that limited many quality television shows.

by Jonathan Rintels, Center for Creative Voices in Media, June 4, 2007

Posted by FMC at 9:47 AM 0 comments

Labels: Digital Rights Management (DRM), iTunes, net neutrality,

webcasting

Thursday, June 7, 2007

The real price of indecency

Kevin Martin is god-darn angry. The FCC chairman has lashed out over a

ruling this week by a New York Appeals Court that overturned his

agency's citing of several major networks for on-air expletives

uttered by Nicole Richie, Cher, a contestant on "Survivor," and

others. Interestingly, his own statement is laced with expletives.

The court rebuked the FCC Commission for being "divorced from

reality." It's not hard to see why: the commission ruled the mere

utterance of certain words like "shit" or "fuck" implied that certain

obscene excretory or sexual acts were carried out. Of course -- in

reality -- these words are often used as simple exclamations.

Back to Martin. Here's an excerpt from his statement on the ruling:

"The court even says the Commission is "divorced from reality." It

is the New York court, not the Commission, that is divorced from

reality in concluding that the word "fuck" does not invoke a sexual

connotation."

...

"If ever there was an appropriate time for Commission action, this

was it. If we can't restrict the use of the words "fuck" and "shit"

during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they

want, whenever they want."

Now consider what Cher actually said at the 2002 Billboard Awards:

"I've had unbelievable support in my life, and I've worked really

hard. I've had great people to work with. Oh, yeah, you know what?

I've also had critics for the last 40 years saying that I was on my

way out every year. Right. So fuck `em. I still have a job and they

don't."

Of course, the fines are part of the Bush administration's larger war

on indecency that infamously climaxed with the brouhaha around Janet

Jackson's wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl.

The real price of indecency is revealed when we look at the

environment it has created. Take one example: Remember the flap over

"Postcards from Buster?" PBS pulled an episode of the kid shows that

showed the rabbit Buster visiting a lesbian couple in Vermont just

before the new Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings sent a letter

to PBS threatening to decrease funding if it didn't pull the show.

Is the real danger what kids are hearing on TV or what they're not

seeing?

Posted by FMC at 9:47 AM 0 comments

Labels: FCC, Indecency, Kevin Martin

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Women, minorities shut out of radio ownership

Women and minorities have largely been shut out of radio ownership in

this country, in part, because of media consolidation, a new study by

media reformers Free Press has found. The study concluded women and

minorities own 6 and 7.7 percent respectively of the nation's full

power radio stations.

The study is the first ever complete ownership assessment of the

nation's airwaves. Significantly, the study found stations owned by

women and minorities tended to feature more local and diverse

programming than those stations owned by white men.

The study found equally dismal representation of women and minorities

at the top levels of radio station management, and that minority

ownership levels are low even in areas where there are high

concentrations of minorities.

Of course, media consolidation has not only affected women and

minority ownership. The study makes a great companion piece to a study

put out by the Future of Music Coalition last year that found radio

listener's options have decreased as the market became more

consolidated. The study found just 15 formats make up 3/4 of

commercial radio formats. Niche formats like jazz and bluegrass are

almost entirely absent from commercial radio.

Both studies are cautionary tales on media consolidation. Hopefully,

the FCC does a little reading as it once again discusses whether to

eliminate limits on media ownership.

Posted by FMC at 3:01 PM 0 comments

Labels: FCC, media ownership, radio

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Whitacre's going away party

It seems the good folks over at Save The Internet have managed to get

their hands on ATT CEO Ed Whitacre's final speech to his board of