Radio Free Satellite
Published December 28, 2004
The FCC has ruled that satellite radio providers like XM and Sirius are free from FCC oversight. Not only is this ruling the only legal decision the FCC could have reached it’s a great decision for free speech everywhere.
The Federal Communications Commission realized that while it has control over programs broadcast for free over radio and television it has no right to control what consenting, informed adults choose to spend their money on.
Despite the clear legal grounds the religious right wanted to extend government reach further into private business. Oddly most of these people vote republican whom I always thought wanted less government intrusion into life.
Focus on Family called the ruling “Tragic.”
Patrick Trueman, a former federal prosecutor who serves as a consultant to the Family Research Council, said the FCC's logic, that subscription costs protect children from indecency, is flawed.
"Most homes have cable or satellite TV," he said, "so kids are very likely to be in the audience when there is indecency or hard-core porn on cable or satellite television."
Long ago they gave up trying to prove that things they disagreed with were bad, they just trotted out an invisible child and said he was being harmed by what was going on.
We don’t know that a child would become a Wiccan because of Harry Potter, but it’s possible so it should be banned. We can’t find a child who turned gay because of Will and Grace, but it’s possible so it should be pulled from the air.
What it comes down to is these are people who want to make moral judgments for other people. So what if a kid turns out Wiccan or gay or even Mormon for that matter, to a free society? It doesn’t. It only matters if you belong to a religious sect that believes these things are wrong.
Conservatives like Mr. Patrick see more and more things they don’t agree with not only surviving but gaining popularity. Society is becoming less like them every year so they fight and fight and fight to regain some control, but the problem is there is no facts in there corner. Nothing that can convince the middle that yeah, Will and Grace really is subversive.
So they trot out this invisible child and tell us he’s being harmed by what he sees and hears. Too bad that child doesn’t really exist.
- Radio Free Satellite
- Published: December 28, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Politics
- Writer: Eric James
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Comments on this articleComments
Well, as a card-carrying member of the vast "Right Wing Conspiracy" (btw, we have great holiday parties), I'm very glad for the FCC's ruling. The government has every right to set standards around tax-payer funded services, but I don't want to see them messing with cable and satellite services.
I look at it from two angles:
1) Yes, there will be raunchy content that I don't want my kids getting access to. With that said, I can lock out any of those channels at home or on my XM Radio account very easily, so I'm happy.
2) The sword of government control is two-edged. Yes, they might limit offensive material, but then they may also limit good content that I want, like all those great conservative talk shows that I listen to every day. :-)
The markets will help set some limits on what works and what does not with cable and satellite services. Also, I think broadcasters will increasingly align themselves with whatever niche market they've chosen to serve.
I think it will be very interesting to see the "battle of the satellite services" as it begins to really heat up. And I can't wait to see what future services we'll get as well. If we can stream radio, then we can stream other media sources, and as technology lets us pack more memory into smaller sizes, we can stream, store, consume, AND interact, all on demand. We'll get the content and services we want, any time, any place, all for what will hopefully be a reasonable price. :-) Price too, will remain market driven, so we can have reasonable hope that prices will remain within the means of the average person.
Thanks,
David
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Even if the FCC wanted to regulate the content of subscription-based satellite radio service, they would have had to change the rules in place for cable television, a massive undertaking that would have further pushed the first amendment onto thin ice.
In my view, a sinister figure in the battle of free speech vs. censorship is Senator Brownback of Kansas, who has made it his mission to target and take out radio broadcaster Howard Stern via ghastly and capricious FCC fines. Now that Stern is moving over to satellite, it will be very interesting to see how things play out over the next several years.
With sales and subscriptions of both XM and Sirius satellite radios soaring, it looks like free speech will survive... for the time being.
Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com