The next administration and indecency and pornography over the airwaves

By: Steve Huston

Personal note:

One of the harsh realities that I have learned in my years in a pro-decency ministry has been the fact that the FCC has not been able (for a variety of reasons) to bring remedy to the national tragedy of television that spews forth programming that has increminately (at an ever increasing pace) decimated the Judeo-Christian ethic of decency.

From my vantage point, we have perhaps the best group of commissioners (3 Republicans – 2 Democrats) that have ever sat as commissioners of the FCC. I have had the privilege of being in meetings with several of them where they gave presentations and fielded questions answering forthrightly questions that were pointed and critical.

Chairman Kevin Martin (R) has received mostly positive reviews from leading national pro-family organizations for his several years of leadership.

Nonetheless, the FCC remains mostly neutralized in its efforts to send the message to broadcasters to clean up their act.

With the new administration coming in just a few more months, we can expect there to be several changes on the FCC. For example, if Obama becomes President, Kevin Martin will be replaced with a Democratic Chair.

I often have raised the question, at least to myself, “How can we expect our country to be healthy and wholesome when our airwaves are permeated morning to night with indecency, immodesty, illicit sex, “desperate housewives” life styles, godlessness?”

According to Parent Television Council’s Brent Bozell, the outlook for out nation regarding cleaner television programming is not bright.

Quoting:

“Bozell: McCain, Obama Both Soft on TV Smut”

In his latest culture column, Brent Bozell notes that federal judges have declared that they don’t believe in “judicial second-guessing,” but they’re going to completely prevent the FCC from doing anything to punish the networks for ripping bras off at Super Bowl halftime shows and all kinds of other fleeting moments of televised sleaze. There may be no Washington pushback against indecency from whichever candidate wins the White House in November:

Disturbing signs are now emerging that the next administration – no matter which party – will be bowing before Hollywood and its fat-cat lobbyists and waving the white flag of surrender on policing nudity and profanity on television. At a recent forum in Washington, representatives of both Barack Obama and John McCain insisted their candidates would step away from FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s attempts to draw attention to the problem of broadcast indecency.

Speaking for Obama, former Clinton FCC chairman Bill Kennard claimed “We have a lot of headlines about the Janet Jackson case, but it really doesn’t address the key issue, which is how we can protect our families and our kids from harmful content.” Wouldn’t fines discourage broadcasters from allowing profane “mistakes”? But Kennard, like every slick telecom lobbyist in Washington, insisted on the absurd line that the V-chip and other technological frauds can help parents protect their children. No V-chip would have – could have — stopped millions of children from being flashed by Janet Jackson. Kennard knows that, of course. But lobbying means never having to say you’re being honest.

Kennard also unfurled the other line every libertine uses, arguing that since profanity and explicit sex are spreading across every other media platform, from cable and satellite TV to the Internet to cell phones, it’s now outmoded to try and regulate the indecency on broadcast television. Blow up every dam, and then let the flood begin.

Sadly, the representative for John McCain was equally useless. John Kneuer completely agreed with Kennard. The legal framework for indecency enforcement was “overdue for examination.” The framework is outdated, created long before cable and satellite TV. He proclaimed the need for a new framework that “all parties and consumers can understand.”

We are currently headed toward a framework that all consumers should understand. It’s very simple: “You’re on your own.”
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-graham/2008/07/27/bozell-mccain-obama-both-soft-tv-smut

American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050

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