Gag-cable plan will go nowhere

[LiviaOlivia]

Newsday
Gag-cable plan will go nowhere
Noel Holston
March 14, 2005

To paraphrase my man Charlton Heston, if they want to mess with my cable box, they'll have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers. By they, I mean Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). Stevens, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, recently told a meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) that it's not fair for the Federal Communications Commission to be harassing only broadcasters on the indecency issue. He proposed that the FCC also be empowered to lean on and levy fines against cable and satellite-delivered channels such as Bravo and MTV, as well as satellite-radio services such as XM and Sirius, that put on programs between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. that some people would find offensive.

~snip~

Stevens, however, believes that the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the rule that cable systems must carry all local broadcasters' signals, could be persuaded to make everything a cable operator transmits subject to the same rules as programs broadcast by TV stations that are federally licensed. Follow Stevens' logic and the DVDs we rent at Blockbuster and the books we order from the Literary Guild are as vulnerable to content restriction as programs on Spike TV or Showtime. If Comedy Central's "South Park" isn't First Amendment-protected speech, then neither is one of Scott Turow's crime novels.

Why broadcasters would be enthusiastic about Stevens' proposals isn't hard to understand. The broadcast networks have lost half their audience to cable and satellite services over the last couple of decades. They'd like a more level playing field, and since they have a snowball's chance of getting more freedom in the current cultural-backlash environment, their only option is to take away some of cable's freedom.

The irony of this situation, apparently lost on Stevens and his supporters, is that the exodus to cable has been led to a considerable degree by viewers seeking precisely the sort of programming that these politicians are eager to make subject to indecency fines. Yes, there are folks who want nothing edgier from their cable (or their dish) than "Trading Spaces" and "Leave It to Beaver" reruns, but there are just as many who want to see uncut theatrical movies, unabridged stand-up comedy and original series in which characters aren't obligated to speak in polite euphemisms.

~snip~

Stevens should pick an easier goal, perhaps resurrecting Prohibition.

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