Comments on: Time to Kill the FCC?

By: E Pluribus Unum

E Pluribus Unum — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:35:37 +0000

Dismantle the FCC
From Jeff Jarvis:Let's look at what would happen if we abolished the FCC. What regulation, if anything, would we need instead? How are the FCC and Congress hurting development? We, the people, tell the FCC -- and Congress -- that...

By: Scott Dillard

Scott Dillard — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 21:23:40 +0000

There should be NO standards. Tell the broadcast networks that since they use public airwaves, they pay the government 10% of their revenue off the top. In exchange, they can broadcast anything they want. Who really cares? Busybodies who complain about everything or people who are professionally offended. Make sure there is a parental block on all TVs and be done with it. I, for one, am tired of some government agency telling people what they can watch. Let the public decide through ratings what they are willing to put up with.

By: denise

denise — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 21:08:02 +0000

Whatever problems there are at the FCC, the fact that this action was initiated by 3 people complaining doesn't bother me.

If we have reasonable and consistently applied standards, then that's what should matter.

I don't know what was shown on the referenced program. I do assumed the commissioners actually watched the show and didn't rely on the complaint letters. So I don't have any opinion of this particular decision.

I wouldn't want a situation where fines are determined by the number of complaints. That would just be a popularity contest.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:27:24 +0000

As a "ham" (licensed amateur radio operator), I have to concede JDW's point. But there's little justification, in my opinion, to have the FCC taking a seemingly arbitrary stance on each new decency complaint that comes along. Since "decency" isn't something definable by bureaucratic means (it seems to boil down to "whatever doesn't offend at least three people who don't have lives"), I think it needs to be left to the market to define, and to police with tools that can be provided to and controlled by individual viewers. Leave the FCC out of that subject entirely, and my objection to its exstence is profoundly diminished. If I get two other people to agree with me, and we write letters, experience suggests we should be able to get our way.

By: Texas Native

Texas Native — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:21:03 +0000

If indecency only generates three complaints, is i
If indecent scenes only generate a few complaints, some say it's not indecent

By: jd watson

jd watson — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:07:18 +0000

The majority of the FCC provides a vital technical serve, viz. allocating frequencies and power levels so that stations aren't stepping all over each other's broadcasts.

By: The Media Drop

The Media Drop — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 19:43:24 +0000

Since changing the channel might be too difficult...
Television-General

By: McGehee

McGehee — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 18:55:26 +0000

Broadcast TV is a dinosaur too. Drop an asteroid on it.

By: LJD

LJD — Wed, 17 Nov 2004 18:39:40 +0000

Why stop at the FCC? Look at ALL of the bureaucracies, controlled by a handful of people with scary amounts of power. The DMV? When was the last time a voter had any input into vehicle and driver licensing? But we all pay. Our payments often received by inhuman employees with unseverable tenure... The IRS? Ut-oh, I'm not going there. THEY are likely watching... Then what-to-do with all the do-nothings who previously held the cushy government funded jobs? Where will they find another job with tax-funded expense lunches, long breaks, banker's hours? Seriously though, I'm not putting much faith in Hollywood to produce much quality programming in the first place. Also not much in the viewing public who eat up programs like "My Big Fat Obnoxious Whatever", "Who Wants To Do My Mom", and "Let's See How Many Chicks This Guy Can Bang if They Think He Has a Cool Million". Yes, perhaps just turn it off. Or maybe a first step is forcing the cable company to let me pick the channels I want?

By: Deinonychus antirrhopus

Wed, 17 Nov 2004 18:28:13 +0000

Getting Rid of the FCC My latest post at Outside the Beltway is up. It is about why it is time to do away with the FCC....