The Bush Administration would love to get this guy off the air
The FCC’s Cable Crusade Continues — The public wants these shows. The public pays for these shows. The public gets these shows over cable, not broadcast media. This is not porn. It’s shows like the Sopranos or the Wire or Six Feet Under — or the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. But since the FCC now thinks it can be the government censor for all — doings Gods work, mind you — it’s trying to crackdown on anything it deems offesnive. What keeps coming up in the conversation seems to be Comedy Central. I’m certain that the White House would love to censor that thorn-in-the-side, Jon Stewart. Smut nothwithstanding, Stewart is a threat.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin’s smackdown of the cable industry at a Nov. 29 Senate hearing is revving up Washington’s long-running crusade against racy TV shows
I just don’t see how the FCC has any authority over cable. It has authority over broadcast because it travels over the public airwaves and can be received by anyone.
But cable is a propretary system where only those who pay get to watch. You can’t accidently watch anything because you paid in advance. And if you don’t like what you’re watcing, simply stop paying.
If the government can control private content between two people (the cable companies and the viewer) then it can control the content between ANY two people at ANY time. If this stands, free speech is dead.
(lyrics from a Bush family party)
“Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1984!!!”
(soon after Dubya cracks a bottle of O’Douls over Alito’s head and screams now get down on the ground and give me 20 newbie.”
“I just don’t see how the FCC has any authority over cable.”
Which is the only thing preventing them taking any action.
The scary thing is if Congress expands the scope of the FCC’s mandate.
Why is it the same type of people who don’t want tobacco to be considered a a drug [regulated by FDA] want anything on TV to be considered broadcast [rgulated by FCC]? 🙁
I hate using the “in Canada” we (fill in the blank).
But this is nuts, The Sopranos and the Daily Show are shown on public broadcast (CTV). Soft core porn is shown almost nightly (TQS). The harshest critic of the government news & comedy wise are on CBC & TVO which are both state sponsored broadcasters.
I find it bizarre that a country that believes its citizens can own handguns doesn’t believe those same citizens can operate a tv remote control.
Federal authority to regulate broadcast media is dubious in itself, but the government certainly has no Constitutional authority to regulate cable. But, once again, I am counting on the public to just roll over and surrender even more freedom to the power hungry buearocrats in Washington. Apathy and the uncaring attitude about history has done wonders for this country.
I have in the past defended the FCC when it comes to their power over the broadcast air. But here I have to say the FCC does not have power. Besides most cable companies give people ways of blocking things you don’t want in you home. Comcast (the cable company where I live) gives me the power to block by Station, Show, and rating. So if you don’t like a show you can block that show only, or if you want to block a rating you can (also when you block a rating, all ratings above it will be blocked, so if you block PG, then PG13, R, X will also be blocked) or if you don’t want a station in your home you can block that station too. So if you have kids you don’t want to watch something then you can block it. The FCC has no power over private lines, payed for by private funds. The partents on the other hand have full rights over what their kids can watch and the cable companies do offer that at 3 levels, and besides you are not forced to have cable, nor does the goverment pay for the public to have cable.
Untill eather you are forced to have cable or the goverment pays for you to have cable, or if cable were to go over a public owned medium then the FCC has no right to say what goes on it.
Just amplifying on Mike Voice’s comment: The FCC dweeb IS proposing these regulations to Congress. How hard do you think that assortment of freedom fighters will work at maintaining choice?
There is only one true important purpose to the FCC, and that is stopping interference. Verification that consumer products do not interfere with other items, and verification that EMERGENCY / IMPORTANT (air flight) frequencies are not interfered with. Everything else they do harms the rights of Americans. How do Americans benefit by them selling airwaves to the highest bidder so we can have the same generic radio stations throughout the country? Think about how much better off we would be if public stations were free to anyone to use? Some might argue chaos would be the result, however countless other countries have proven that is not the case.
The FCC is a pawn of whichever party is running the country, and will do their bidding. During the early Clinton days, we had the start of Low Power FM licenses, and a rather relaxed attitude toward community (“pirate”) radio stations. Since Republicans have taken over all branches of government, there is no tolerance for ‘pirates’, removal of Low Power FM, and a crack-down on anything on TV that does not agree with them — whether it be a bare breast or Jon Stewart.
As far as I am concerned, the FCC should be shut down permanently.
Everyone keeps lamenting about what rights some federal agency wants to take away. Do you really believe that the American people care!! These are the same people that have been consistantly lied to for the past 5 years by the most corrupt and power hungry administration that I can remember since Nixon and yet still 35% of them still think Dubyah is doing a great job. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, my fellow Americans will sleep right through the most egregious usurpation of individual rights in the history of this country as long as they see it effecting someone else.
Monty, there are good reasons why pirate stations should be shut down. many pirate stations use stomping to get people to listen to them, stomping is where they will broadcast on a real station freq, if you are not close to the pirate station you will never hear it, but for the few blocks around it, they will be what you get, thanks to the inverse square law of RF. Also there are RF safety issues. Also being pirate, how do you know who is to be gone after if they broadcast questionable stuff. Also the next question is, do you want to be next to a person doing this, are you sure they are going to follow the correct procedure when it comes to your RF safety. Even hams are required to follow laws that are designed to protect others from RF, check out part 97 of the FCC regulations, I will admit I am a bit of a fan of part 97 because that is the part that lets me get on the air, yes I am a ham and my call sign is kb3hcg.
You do realize the religious right and Pat Robertson don’t want the FCC to break up the channels like this right? Because NO ONE WILL pay for their channels!
They technically don’t have any authority over DSL but they do it anyways.
Did anyone else notice in the last year how Jon Stewart’s tone has become decidely more anti-Bush? They’ve always been critical of both sides, and still are, but the tone feels different.
I believe the turning point came when he interviewed Bernard Goldberg about his book “100 people who are screwing up America” and he wouldn’t give the author a break. You could tell Jon felt the book was totally right wing and kept coming at him. This happened during a couple of interviews all in the same 2 week period. Around the same time Jon started doing his imitation of Bush. I still think it’s hilarioius, and I still watch it religiously, but their claim to poking equal fun at both sides has been diminished, IMHO.
You blame Republicans for this, but a big booster is Hillary Clinton. You left out a bigger part of the story, the push for alacarte pricing of cable channels, so you only buy the ones you want.
If you say you can’t interfere with a willing customer and seller, etc. then I assume you also object to the banning of smoking in bars and restaurants, tobacco advertising in Nascar, and any limits on gas prices.
How come I’m hoping that Sadaam will win his trial, regain power and offer to overthrow our government in the name of FREEDOM for the American people? Who’s taking bets on when we can expect to see the first “Dumbya” and Cheney statues?
bit by bit the U.S is becoming a Totalitarian Fascist State. Enjoy what freedoms u have, cause they’re disappearing on a daily basis
The FCC isn’t all bad, however, they do go overboard sometimes. Their most difficult job is to make everyone happy all the time. And since that can’t be done, the people who are upset tend to be the loudest. If they people who like what the FCC is doing would speak up, then I think this would not be such a one sided fight.
You left out a bigger part of the story, the push for alacarte pricing of cable channels, so you only buy the ones you want.
Yes, and that is the main thing which scares me – the way stuff I dislike always seems to be tacked-on to “must pass” funding bills [and I realize that cuts both ways. 😉 ]
In this case, I expect “them” to use ala carte pricing [something I would like] as a popular vehicle onto which to attach some form of “decency” provisions.
And they will probably give it some high-sounding sound-bite name to make it a PR-nightmare to vote against, i.e. Communications Decency Act, Onlince Child Protection Act, or Patriot Act. 🙁
You say Bush is trying to get Jon Stewart off the air, but what about Hillary and co. auditing Bill O’Reilly every single year? The content provisions do apply equally, even if they went after Howard Stern and not Oprah.
If the Cable or DSS subscriber is an adult – which is likely given that payment is often some form of credit – where’s the crime?The insidious thing here is if the FCC get’s censorship control over all broadband – then anyone could be cut off in mid sente………………………..