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FCC decency rules already chilling content
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 08:29:12 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Barry Ritholtz <ritholtz () yahoo com> Date: July 12, 2004 8:09:05 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: FCC decency rules already chilling content Hi Dave, The new FCC "decency rules" are already having an impact on the creativecommunity: Given the ambiguous nature of this regulation (what is decent
and indecent in various communities?), and the limited budgets of some stations -- notably, PBS -- a new 'chilling effect' is already at work.Content is getting watered down to where it is "FCC proof." Following this
slippery slope to its logical conclusion, broadcast content will eventually reach a level of suitability for 11 year olds. This will make difficult (if not impossible) for Broadcast stations to compete with Cable and Satellite channels. Here's Tim Goodman's take on it from the San Francisco Chronicle:PBS watches its mouth rather than pay big fines. Now it's up to the other
networks to fight the FCC. by Tim Goodmanhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/07/12/ DDGHK7JE0V1.DTL
EXCERPT: And the morality war on television has begun. With the excising of three not-so-little terms -- "s -- ," "f -- " and "b--- j--," -- from a forthcoming drama on PBS, the Hollywood creative community and broadcasters are finding, not to their liking, that a chilling effect on content has already taken place. Like all broadcast networks, PBS immediately filed a petition with theFederal Communications Commission when the agency stepped through the door that Janet Jackson kicked open at the Super Bowl and announced steep fines
for any broadcaster that didn't meet more stringent guidelines about content. Unlike other broadcast networks, however, PBS doesn't have a lot of cash sitting around. In fact, the considerable woes now facing PBS are almost directly tied to money -- the system simply can't afford to stand up against the government. Because of this, a new drama called "Cop Shop" starring Richard Dreyfuss and other actors who made a sort of creative labor of love on the cheap for public broadcasting, has been edited to avoid the potential wrath ofthe FCC. The cuts prompted executive producer and writer David Black and
Dreyfuss to whip out prepared statements before facing the nation's TV critics here on Friday. "Ladies and gentlemen, 'Cop Shop' was never meant to be bleeped," saidDreyfuss, reading from his prepared statement, via satellite from New York
where he's appearing on Broadway. "David and I agreed to be bleeped because we were told that KCET, our greatly appreciated allies in this affair, could be subject to intimidating fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. ... And so, more reluctantly than I can describe,we agreed to be bleeped. But being bleeped is more than it is cracked up to be. Having now been bleeped, I can only say that it doesn't feel very
good. It feels kind of dirty. But you can never be unbleeped, so you can only learn from your bleeps and move on."A day before the remarks from Dreyfuss and Black, PBS president and chief operating officer Pat Mitchell said the petition sent to the FCC said PBS
was "worried about the chilling effects of these kinds of interpretive standards.""It would be one thing if (the FCC rules) said very clearly, you can't do
this," Mitchell said. "But a lot of it is left up to interpretation; and yet, it's clear they're being pretty aggressive in their interpretation and the fines are really steep. "We have 349 stations and some of them are going to have very differentcommunity standards than others," Mitchell added. "And we've got to err on
the side of restraint because we can't make any one of our stationsliable for legal action, for FCC fines. That would be irresponsible of us
to do." -- snip -- The rest of the article is worth reading. Cheers, Barry L. Ritholtz Market Strategist Maxim Group britholtz () maximgrp com (212) 895-3614 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Big Picture: A blog of capital markets, geopolitics, with a dash of film! http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- FCC decency rules already chilling content David Farber (Jul 12)