The Federal Communications Commission wants to fine ABC $1.4 million for airing an episode of "NYPD Blue" in 2003 showing a woman's nude buttocks. The network owner, Walt Disney Company, will appeal.
In the sexual Dark Ages of my adolescence, teenagers would mark the hot passages of novels for the delectation of their peers. Now the enterprise has come full circle--with disastrous results.
A Utah retailer of family-friendly tapes and DVDs--movies with the "dirty parts" cut out of them--has been arrested for trading sex with two 14-year-old girls.
Daniel Dean Thompson's Clean Flix was a video outlet trading in purified versions, catering to clientele who wanted to watch hit movies without nudity, sex, foul language or graphic violence.
But Thompson may have spent too much time watching the excised portions of his products, and now he is facing jail time on charges of sexual abuse and patronizing prostitutes.
This comes after lawsuits by Hollywood studios and the Directors Guild of America for mangling movies by editing out such elements of their art as Kate Winslet's bare breasts in "Titanic."
Sounds a lot like the plot of the film versions of Somerset Maugham's "Rain," in which a South Seas missionary rails against the loose behavior of Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth, only to go mad with desire over their charms.
If there's another remake, Thompson is not likely to be around to cut out the dirty parts. but ABC will have to be careful about showing it on TV
Showing posts with label FCC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FCC. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Damming the Mainstream Media
Alberto Gonzalez, Monica Goodling and others of the Bush Brigade who worked so hard to subvert American freedoms are gone, but their mission is moving forward. After chipping away at our legal rights, next on the agenda is control of our minds through mass media.
A House Committee will turn the spotlight today on FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, who has been busy trying to concentrate ownership more than ever before into the hands of Rupert Murdoch and a few other corporate chieftains.
Like all loyal Bushies, Martin has not let legal niceties get in his way.
Citing "complaints from the public and professionals within the communications industry," Rep. Bart Stupak, who heads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that is investigating the FCC head, says, "It is one thing to be an aggressive leader, but many of the allegations indicate possible abuse of power and an attempt to intentionally keep fellow commissioners in the dark."
Martin and other FCC members will testify about his efforts to bulldoze through the easing of rules limiting cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same city as well as "cooking the books" to push through regulations to crack down on cable TV which, outside of Fix News, has not been as servile as the Administration would like.
To do so, Martin has used what media watchdogs call "a rigged process" designed to produce a "predetermined outcome."
The FCC chairman came to his position of overseeing free speech in America at the age of 33 with no communications experience whatsoever after working on the legal team that blocked the 2000 Florida vote recount to put Bush in the White House.
In 1961, President Kennedy's FCC chairman, Newt Minow, famously called commercial TV a "vast wasteland" and worked to expand its range of content by enabling UHF stations and public television.
His 2007 counterpart is less interested in what's on than who controls it. "America Idol" and reality shows are high art as long as the right people profit and keep the medium from sending the wrong political message.
A House Committee will turn the spotlight today on FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, who has been busy trying to concentrate ownership more than ever before into the hands of Rupert Murdoch and a few other corporate chieftains.
Like all loyal Bushies, Martin has not let legal niceties get in his way.
Citing "complaints from the public and professionals within the communications industry," Rep. Bart Stupak, who heads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee that is investigating the FCC head, says, "It is one thing to be an aggressive leader, but many of the allegations indicate possible abuse of power and an attempt to intentionally keep fellow commissioners in the dark."
Martin and other FCC members will testify about his efforts to bulldoze through the easing of rules limiting cross-ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same city as well as "cooking the books" to push through regulations to crack down on cable TV which, outside of Fix News, has not been as servile as the Administration would like.
To do so, Martin has used what media watchdogs call "a rigged process" designed to produce a "predetermined outcome."
The FCC chairman came to his position of overseeing free speech in America at the age of 33 with no communications experience whatsoever after working on the legal team that blocked the 2000 Florida vote recount to put Bush in the White House.
In 1961, President Kennedy's FCC chairman, Newt Minow, famously called commercial TV a "vast wasteland" and worked to expand its range of content by enabling UHF stations and public television.
His 2007 counterpart is less interested in what's on than who controls it. "America Idol" and reality shows are high art as long as the right people profit and keep the medium from sending the wrong political message.
Monday, November 05, 2007
Media Sellouts
From right and left, critics accuse the nation's media of selling out the American people but, while the debate rages, the real selling is not by the media but of them.
On PBS last night, Bill Moyers highlighted the latest attempt to consolidate television, radio, newspapers and magazines even further into the hands of half a dozen conglomerates, Rupert Murdoch's among them.
This time the effort is being rushed along by FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, who as a 33-year-old lawyer worked on the Bush legal team for the 2000 Florida vote recount and, with no media background, was appointed to the commission less than six months later.
In 2003, an attempt to concentrate media ownership was beaten back after a public outcry by interest groups ranging from the National Organization for Women and Common Cause to the National Rifle Association and the pro-life Family Research Council.
Now, in the waning days of Bush's Administration, his 3-2 majority on the FCC is trying to rush through similar relaxing of cross-ownership rules by next month, but again the public and Congress are trying to head them off at the pass.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" was a slogan in the mid-nineteenth century when Americans were trying to abolish slavery. It's still applies now when a radical White House seems determined to enslave our minds.
On PBS last night, Bill Moyers highlighted the latest attempt to consolidate television, radio, newspapers and magazines even further into the hands of half a dozen conglomerates, Rupert Murdoch's among them.
This time the effort is being rushed along by FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, who as a 33-year-old lawyer worked on the Bush legal team for the 2000 Florida vote recount and, with no media background, was appointed to the commission less than six months later.
In 2003, an attempt to concentrate media ownership was beaten back after a public outcry by interest groups ranging from the National Organization for Women and Common Cause to the National Rifle Association and the pro-life Family Research Council.
Now, in the waning days of Bush's Administration, his 3-2 majority on the FCC is trying to rush through similar relaxing of cross-ownership rules by next month, but again the public and Congress are trying to head them off at the pass.
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" was a slogan in the mid-nineteenth century when Americans were trying to abolish slavery. It's still applies now when a radical White House seems determined to enslave our minds.
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