Michael Powell: No FCC censorship of satellite radio [fs]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Robert Lee <robertslee () verizon net>
Reply-To: <robertslee () verizon net>
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 12:09:34 -0500
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP] Michael Powell: No FCC censorship of satellite radio [fs]

I, too, think that Powell's reasoning is bizarre and if he really said that
shows almost a total lack of knowledge of some basic legal and regulatory
issues.  On Comcast cable on any night I can watch people fornicating.  I
can watch hard concrete like silicone implanted breasts with jutting nipples
bounce up and down on supposed erect penises.   Why can I do that?  Because
I pay for cable.  Do I pay for this content purposefully?  No.  It is
bundled. But the deal is I pay for the service and if I don't want Comcast
cable I can not pay them and not get the content.  I can imagine a case in
which some aggrieved party says to Comcast, don't bundle that in, have that
station be a specific line item to be bought or not, but to the best of my
knowledge the FCC has no more right to regulate the content of stations I
pay for than some other regulatorium has the right to regulate the sexual
content of a magazine I buy, or the content of a book I buy.

I have the honor of having had a mother who wrote books that were banned in
Boston and also by the Catholic Church (her books were on something called a
B or C list---I cannot remember which).  The FBI visited our house in the
1950's and removed from her bookshelves books that were illegal to buy in
the United States, including Henry Miller, Justine, etc.  The HUAC called
her to testify and she refused.  And this was a woman who was the editor of
poetry for the Ladies Home Journal and wrote poems like, "How tall is
Robert?--two teddy bears tall, one medium bounce of a red rubber ball."  We
had people marching outside our house with sandwich boards trying to get us
to move out of the neighborhood.  Catholic kids were not allowed to play
with us.

Three months later the spotlight moved from our house to that of Grace
Metallious, in Boston, who had come out with something even worse, a book
called Peyton Place.  Six years later Metallious was dead in her early 40's,
partly due to the political fallout of her celebrity.  By that time we had
re-bought Henry Miller books.

Some twenty years ago I watched on TV a young fawning female TV reporter
interview Henry Miller.  She knew he was important, but not exactly why.  I
am sure she had never read any of his books.  He said in that interview
something I have never forgotten and by which I live.

Interviewer:  Are you a Communist?
Miller:  (laughing) No, I am not a Communist, don't you know.
Interviewer:  Well, then are you a Capitalist?
Miller: (laughing even harder)  No, I am not a Capitalist, don't you know.
Interviewer:  I don't get it.  If you are not a Communist and not a
Capitalist, what are you?
Miller: (kindly) Well, don't you know, there is no Communism.  There is no
Capitalism.
Interviewer:  (confused)  If there is no Communism and there is no
Capitalism, then what is there?
Miller: (kindly)  There is only one system.
Interviewer:  What is that?
Miller: Barterism.
Interviewer:  Barterism?
Miller:  Yes.  Do you know what that is?
Interviewer:  Yes, that is when you trade one thing for another.
Miller:   Almost.  You have it right except for one thing.
Interviewer:  What is that?
Miller:  There is only one thing to trade.
Interviewer: What is that?
Miller:  Ourselves.  We have only one thing to trade.  Ourselves.  All else
is just details. And that is true in systems you call Capitalism
and in systems you call Communism.


Michael Powell is a silly man in an very unsilly position of power.  To me
watching the Piltdown Man (the hoax caveman) Sean Hannity tell Gore Vidal
(at the least one of the intellectual figures of the last century) he is
"full of crap" is more obscene that watching a nipple or two.  Sean Hannity,
in my mind, is the most obscene thing on my TV.  When Gore Vidal asked
Hannity why Hannity was calling him Gore, Hannity responded, "What should I
call you then?" and Vidal said, appropriately, "How about Mr. Vidal?"

And that about says it all.  The regulatorium is now being run by willful,
disrespectful, caustic, and sanctimonious children, who, at one moment
profess a distaste for all regulation of business of any kind and the next,
jump on any bandwagon they think will ingratiate themselves with the powers
that be.


Robert Lee


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip () v2 listbox com [mailto:owner-ip () v2 listbox com] On Behalf Of
David Farber
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 9:13 AM
To: Ip
Subject: [IP] Michael Powell: No FCC censorship of satellite radio [fs]


------ Forwarded Message
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 00:15:45 -0500
To: <politech () politechbot com>
Subject: [Politech] Michael Powell: No FCC censorship of satellite radio
[fs]

[Of course it's hardly clear that the FCC has the statutory authority to
impose "indecency" restrictions on satellite radio if it wanted to, and
constitutional hurdles are another reason for Powell to say this. But
it's still good that he did. More broadly, the existence of two
different regulatory regimes does cause an imbalance, and all else being
equal, a competitive advance for satellite radio. If the imbalance ever
corrects itself, I hope it'll be in the less-regulated direction rather
than the Pacification of satellite. --Declan]

---

http://news.com.com/FCC+chief+buoys+VoIP%2C+satellite+radio/2100-7353_3-5515
823.html?tag=nefd.top

FCC chief buoys VoIP, satellite radio
Published: January 6, 2005, 3:09 PM PST
By David Becker
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

LAS VEGAS--Michael Powell had a rare bit of good news Thursday for shock
jock Howard Stern, saying the government had no interest in censoring
satellite radio... "I think it's a dangerous thing to start talking
about extending government oversight of content to other media just to
level the playing field," Powell said. [...] Broadcast radio operators
have made several unsuccessful attempts to restrict satellite radio
content. But Powell said the merging of media formats and the Internet
and changing attitudes favor minimal oversight. [...]
_______________________________________________
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Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)

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