Posted on 05/31/2006 8:36:09 AM PDT by Paul678
Indecency Complaints in Q1 '06 Surpass Full 2005 Count
By Tony Sanders
Billboard Radio Monitor
May 30, 2006
There already have been more consumer complaints filed this year concerning obscene, indecent or profane programming on TV and radio than were filed for all of 2005.
The FCC’s latest tally of such consumer complaints in the first quarter jumped by 118,115 filings this year to come in at 275,131 complaints for the three months ended March. That’s a 75% increase over last year’s comparable 157,016 filings received in the first quarter of 2005.
For all of 2005, there were 233,471 indecency/obscenity complaints logged by consumers and consumer groups against radio and TV, with most of those coming during the first quarter of the year.
Last year, there was one month, January, in which the FCC received an enormous number of complaints, while the other two months showed relatively few such filings.
This year there were more than 130,000 complaints filed in February and a like amount in March. Specifically, the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureau says it received 138,527 complaints in February and 134,865 in March. It received only 1,739 in January, per the bureau tally.
The FCC’s report for the fourth-quarter of 2005 says that consumers logged 44,109 complaints about indecency/obscenity on radio and TV during the last three months of the year.
All of these numbers pale in comparison to the Super Bowl 2004 year, when 1,405,419 such complaints were logged and nearly half of those came during the first quarter of the year.
http://billboardradiomonitor.com/radiomonitor/news/business/leg_reg/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002577281
Where's the democracy, let alone small-government conservatism, in that?
Check out TV Watch, at www.televisionwatch.org, for a common sense voice of reason in this debate.
Isn't that the goal of any advocacy group? I'm not saying I am defending the PTC, but look at us on FR. We are a collection of individuals who on occasion write to out law makers and other executives in an attempt to influence policy.
Where's the difference?
Without Howard Stern on?................
The queer commercials have started showing up, which make me want to puke! I've seen ones for homosexual dating services during what you'd think was a relatively harmless show. I can't recall if it was broadcast or a satellite channel.
Not to mention Bob! And Cialis. And all of the other "quality of love-life" crap that's on there. TV is getting more sexual every day, and less of what Mr. Rogers had in his vision of the good that it could do.
That is democracy.
Seesh, they let anyone post on FR these days.
I have no quarrel with PTC's right to try and influence policy. However, the FCC has seriously increased their regulation - sometimes as a direct result of only a few PTC complaints. Additionally, what the PTC promotes-increased government regulation of TV- is hardly small-government conservatism...which sets a bad precedent. Future FCC commissioners, perhaps appointed by a liberal president, could use the current FCC's indecency decisions as legal justification to shut down Rush, Sean or other conservative talk show hosts.
Just something to think about.
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