cheese it, the cops!

inappropriation

somehow the united states went from 'congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech or of the press' to “There are a lot of names and descriptions that were used over time that are inappropriate today,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said. “And I think the name this is attributed to the Washington football club is one of those.” in other words, we used to value a bold brawling discourse; now our speech is run by little schoolmarms: 'inappropriate!' honestly, that something is inappropriate, other things being equal, recommends it. i suppose 'appropriateness' is the constitutional standard on prior censorship of expression in our jurisprudence?

fcc regulation of radio, television, and cell phone frequencies has been wielded to allow an extremely narrow range of media corporations to corner public discourse. well, that kind of thing is what regulation is for. indeed the fcc "owns" the...atmosphere: they auction off spectrum and so on, which is only comprehensible within a claim of ownership. at any rate the last thing we should want is the fcc owning the internet and selling chunks of it to...you know, newscorp or whatever.

regulation of communications was certainly not a function of the state as the founders of the american republic conceived it - explicitly the reverse - and the fcc is a completely aconstitutional accretion in the first place. (of course, there is no power that federal govenment might claim that can't be justified under the history of interpretations of the interstate commerce clause.)  that's not an academic quibble: the actual effect has been to shape and deaden public discourse

i'm gonna assrape the decency enforcement act and skin it over a period of weeks with a nail clipper.

i took the week off from my creators column last week. but my editor sent out an old fcc rant .

thank god,  big media has finally gotten the message of decency: no naked cartoon baby butts

you be illin

now here's  a good idea: let's start an agency and model it on the fcc!

fcc watch

what i really love is the idea that the fcc conducts investigations  into the stuff you see on tv: i guess this means they try to figure out what they are seeing, and appoint an investigator, paid with your tax dollars, to see whether they see what they see. anyway, i am going to be very very disappointed if there isn't much more serious porn on display at this year's superbowl. they've created an expectation they must now satisfy: every year more flesh; every year worse music. so maybe this year it'll be elton john or billy joel, waving their equipment at an unimpressed nation.  eventually: hardcore: massive orgies on the fifty yard line featuring jena jameson etc.

fcc watch

this sad column from the atlanta journal-constitution by uberbiddy shaunti feldhahn  starts out by comparing the fcc's control of american media to her own control over her kids. then it goes on to describe abc's decision to air "saving private ryan" in non-bowdlerized form as "insolence." the case is nothing like the janet jackson or mnf malfunctions, which though they should not have been sanctioned, were idiotic tittilations of no value to anyone. but broadcasting a serious work of art without deletions cannot be illegal. it cannot be insolent. or if it is, then insolence and crime are necessary conditions of living decently or freely.  the actually existing fcc ought to be enough of a little biddy for anyone's taste. but militant littlebiddiness a la feldhahn has, i admit, a certin talibanic charm. if you don't like insolence, my advice to you is don't be shaunti feldhahn. p.s.: fuck.

fcc watch

here's  a nice editorial from the portland (maine) express-herald. the fcc believes that people shouldn't be able to choose the bundle of cable channels they receive. their arguments are bad, but their purpose is, as per usual, to control what you see and hear.

fcc watch

as this reuters story  indicates, the fcc is exploring the idea that satellite radio makes use of the ""public" (=state-owned) airwaves, and thus is subject to the same "decency standards" as am and fm.  chairman powell will no doubt soon be accusing sirius of engaging in splittist activities.