04/02/2004: 
Criminally Absurd
No Free Speech Please, We're Americans
What the hell is this administration doing?!
from many sources, but mainly here
I wish this were an April Fools joke, like Howard Stern's. Yesterday, the Chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, and Commissioner Michael Copps addressed (behind closed doors) the National Association of Broadcasters on the subject of broadcast indecency. The content of their speeches should be chilling to any advocate of the freedom of expression. For example, Copps is calling to regulate satellite and cable indecency in addition to broadcast as well as insinuating that the depiction of violence is profane (and thus subject to FCC regulation). The speeches are available at the FCC's website and I highly recommend reading both of them, all of them:
Remarks of FCC Chairman Michael Powell at the NAB Summit on Responsible Programming, The Renaissance Hotel, Washington D.C., March 31, 2004 [PDF]
Remarks of FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, NAB Indecency Summit, Washington, DC, March 31, 2004 [PDF]
Is this administration dead set on erasing every freedom that the Constitution is supposed to guarantee? Why are people not more outraged by this administration continually shitting all over the Constitution?
For a more thorough analysis of this "summit" check out the article at Corante.
2 Annotations Submitted
Friday the 2nd of April, santo26 noted:
the asshats who are against people smoking and mc donalds- are they the same people who want the FCC to regulate television? it's funny that decency standards have gone down the tubes mostly since, i would say, the rapid conglomeration of the media outlets. clear channel's vast holdings would have been worthless if bubba the love sponge wasn't indecent.
sure, government does provide useful services, but people who constantly look to government to solve problems that don't involve life and death situations are major- league asshats.
Friday the 2nd of April, Lowry Mays noted:
"If anyone said we were in the radio business, it wouldn't be someone from our company. We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products."
Therefore, all this nonsense about "freedom of expression" really does not interest me in the least.
