[BC] How far is ok?...

[Rich Wood]

------ At 01:54 PM 6/16/2006, Burt I. Weiner wrote: -------

>Just how far and in what direction should creativity in the public 
>go?  Should Common Decency be allowed to play a part or even be guidelines?

Be a good FCC-type person and define Common Decency for me. How about 
common courtesy? Do it in a way an attorney or prosecutor could use 
to reduce the national deficit.

My attorney friends repeatedly deflate my expectations of the law by 
telling me that the law requires damage to have been done before you 
can expect to win a case, pay his fee and buy an RV. Let's go back to 
the Superbowl clothing malfunction. Is there a legally supportable 
study (done by someone without family in the organization's title) 
that absolutely proves that the children who witnessed it were 
damaged? Was there an underage teen male who endured a tumescent 
attack for more than four hours without seeing a doctor, thereby 
losing any hope of affection for life. If so, who will get the money 
- the tumescently tortured teen or the government? If it goes to the 
government it'll probably go to Katrina "victims" for more copies of 
"Girls Gone Wild."

I've been longing for some gutsy broadcaster (an oxymoron, I realize) 
to go to the wall over the grossly unfair indecency fines levied on 
stations. Now there's no choice. When the cost of doing business 
(paying the fine) exceeds the CEO's perks it's time to fight. I 
suspect the FCC isn't pleased about this. Now it means they'll have 
to codify their concept of indecency in such a way that it'll make it 
through the Supreme Court. Vagueness will have to disappear.

Until this setting in stone happens, we're likely to see incidents 
like the Iraq episode of PBS' Frontline. There were more bleeps than 
words. Fearful broadcasters, understandably, will strip (can I use 
that on the air?) out anything that could be considered by any group 
in the nation to be indecent. I consider violence to be indecent. 
Will the resulting rules include any violence I'd consider indecent? 
I'm not an organized group with direct mail and email campaigns but I 
can write a letter of complaint. Will my letter carry the same weight 
as thousands of complaints from people who never saw the incident?

Will there be allowances for real life news footage and war coverage 
where people tend to get upset when shot? Who will make those 
decisions? Will Saving Private Ryan survive another showing once 
there are actual rules in place? Will anyone take the chance? Pity 
the poor Program Director who schedules the film. Mental Health 
professionals feel Bambi harms children. If Disney ever unlocks it 
will we be able to run it so it passes the V-Chip and the fine collector?

I think I'm going to start work on an Easy Listening format and 
invest in the Discovery Channel's restful Sunrise Earth series with 
the expectation that it's the only programming everyone is sure won't 
get them into trouble. The Easy Listening format will be totally 
instrumental to avoid problems with love songs. I do have some 
questions about Discovery in the event some animal might do the nasty 
and harm vast numbers of children.

Rich


Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-454-3258