FCC chair to cable and satellite TV: Clean up your act or else

ap on San Diego Union Tribune ^ | 11/29/05 | Jennifer Kerr - ap

[rwfromkansas]

HBO is basically porn at night.

[rwfromkansas]

The FCC is demanding they offer ala carte?

That is great! :)

[tutstar]

Yeah let's just continue to wallow in filth, vulgarity, rudeness, nudity, homosexuality, and whatever else may come next.

Let's drag this country's morals completely into the sewer! and it won't take much more to do that.

/sarcasm

[tutstar]

ping...

[ReignOfError]

Don't get me wrong - I am NOT in favor of more gubmint regulation. It would be far better if the broadcasters and filmmakers would have the balls to police themselves when it comes to offensive content.

They do -- not by banning it, but by enabling technology to filter it. The V-chip and cable/satellite parental controls allow parents (or just folks who don't want to stumble upon the nasty stuff) to filter what they don't want to see.

I'd like to see them take it a step further -- allow the customer, at request, to receive a cable converter that is restricted by default. Or, for that matter, set up the cable box with something like the old VCR+ codes, so that users could find an organization they trust and lock out a whole range of channels at one step. You could also work out a system for DVD players that lets you lock out films by MPAA rating (or, again, a third-party rating service).

I'm willing to accept broadcast as an exception to the first amendment for technical reasons, because bandwidth is scarce, and because only the government can effectively enforce the licenses. There is no such rationale for regulating print, cable, satellite, home video or the Internet. But the technology exists for the industry to regulate itself, and it will if consumers demand it.

[Racehorse]

You're not understanding though. Ala carte is going to be more expensive on many levels.

Your concerns surprise me.

The only concern I take rather seriously, though I note the validity of all your objections, is the length and complexity of the form required to order ala carte cable service.

Other than that, the data base field is simply ones and zeros, switch on, switch off.  Having had some years of experience working with military databases, I have no doubt our cable industry will have little problem adapting technology in service to consumer choice.

As for the myriad reasons you fear the cable provider might find to raise prices, I ask a simple question, "what's new about that?"  Cable and telephone companies have made an art of dividing and subdividing every conceivable task and then finding a reason to charge a fee for doing something they had to do anyway.

[steve-b]

The FCC is telling the companies to come up with a way for customers to CHOOSE (you libertarians love that word) which channels are available in their homes

The FCC just invented a couple of amazing new devices known as "an off switch" and "a channel selector"?

[steve-b]

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.

[steve-b]

I am all for limited Government but surely there should be some modest rules put into place

LOL. You sound like a CAIR apologist declaring that of course he's against terrorism but surely American and Israel should make a few more concessions.

[steve-b]

To those whose only evident core principle is "freedom from government,"

Those people are called "conservatives", and this is a site that is designed to cater to them. If your core principle is opposed to freedom from government, you might try a more congenial forum.

[steve-b]

I'm willing to accept broadcast as an exception to the first amendment for technical reasons, because bandwidth is scarce, and because only the government can effectively enforce the licenses.

That is a legitimate justification for the government to shut down Joe Blow's transmitter if it interferes with the reception of people who are trying to listen to John Doe's broadcasts. It does not legitimately justify any sort of content regulation.

[Walkenfree]

"Not while our grandchildren are in the room."
I was referring to the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident.
Precisely my point, no control there.

[IranIsNext]

Sure, anything that means parents don't actually have to do any parenting must be good, right?

[Mr. Jeeves]

Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said some critics have complained the bills don't go far enough and that decency standards should be expanded to cover cable and satellite.

How about we extend those decency standards to cover government spending - particularly on indecent 250 million dollar "bridges to nowhere"?

[Guenevere]

We took cable out of our home when we had our children there....in their formative years.

Sure, we couldn't protect them from 'the world' but it helped knowing the easy access wasn't available homewise.

We have cable now....and the free reign of sex, perverted sex and skin is getting worse.

As adults, we can choose what to watch or not to watch...

...but given there are countless homes across the nation with no parental guidelines, no parents home monitoring what their children watch....

..I'm for FCC regulations someway somehow.

[savedbygrace]

It's too late to get a laugh now, but to explain:

First you wrote, "We can handle a boob now and then."

And I replied, "Not while your grandchildren are in the room, I hope." Referring to handling a boob, which in turn refers to extra-curricular activity 'tween grandma and grandpa. It was a joke. If I stepped over the line, I'll apologize, but I WAS joking.

More clear now?

[Wolfie]

There is ample legal precedent that the FCC has zero regulatory authority over satellite & cable TV. Anything they did would immediately be taken to court, and struck down.

Yep. And ain't it a beautiful thing? This is largely about big campaign contributors demanding that the gov't do somehting about the competition that is cleaning their collective clock in the marketplace.

[Austin Willard Wright]

FCC to Consumers: We'll put you in jail unless you obey our dictates!!

[Lazamataz]

FCC chair to cable and satellite TV: Clean up your act or else

It's not broadcasted, therefore the FCC doesn't get to vote.

[Wolfie]

"It Takes A Village", after all.