FCC is it stupid or needed

[HereComesThePain101]

Now the FCC won't let me be or let me be me.
-Eminem

The FCC was established by the Communication Act of 1934, which reads, in small part: "It is the purpose of this Act, among other things, to maintain the control of the United States over all the channels of interstate and foreign radio transmission; and to provide for the use of such channels, but not the ownership thereof, by persons for limited periods of time, under licenses granted by Federal authority, and no such license shall be construed to create any right, beyond the terms, conditions, and periods of the license."

In other words, the act claims the airwaves as the property of the United States government. That is why the FCC thinks it can offer them to the highest bidder.

However, if you auction airwaves, you first of all put them in control of whoever has the most money: that is, for the most part, huge communication corporations. And if you auction them to the highest bidder for billions, you make it necessary for the people who are licensed to recover their huge investments. And so if they are operating telephones, they must charge their customers very high fees. If they are operating radio or television stations, they must generate revenues by including huge amounts of advertising.

Any claim that such a procedure is in the public interest is absurd. And one of its effects is that the media in this country is monopolized by a few bland voices. You can travel all over America, and you will essentially hear the same five FM radio stations, with the same programming: NPR stations, country, top forty, alternative rock, rap/r&b. Virtually all such stations are programmed by central services, and are as empty and repetitive as it is possible to imagine. You will hear the same twenty-six recording artists wherever you go, and almost never anything odd, innovative, or even mildly interesting. This impoverishment of our art and our experience is a direct result of FCC regulation.

But in what sense or on what authority does the FCC own the airwaves and license their use, anyway? Let me remind you of a couple of amendments to the US Constitution: Article 1: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." Article 10: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

It could not be more obvious that the existence of the FCC is unconstitutional top to bottom, from its basic mission to its most trivial action. The FCC simply cannot exist in a country actually governed by constitutional principles, and its existence should offend your pride as someone not born to be a slave.

The FCC claims the right to regulate the contents of broadcasts; that is, it acts as a censor. Eminem's recordings embody, in my opinion, among the most important and problematic literary and political speech in contemporary America. His observations on race are trenchant and original. In his slightly twisted way, he raps against war and against censorship. He is bleeped into incomprehensibility on the radio, because of FCC censorship.

The performance artist Sarah Jones's song "Your Revolution" - a protest against the way women are degraded in the media (and hence a critique of the corporations that the FCC authorizes to provide our "content"), has been effectively censored by the FCC on the grounds that, for example, it explicitly critiques calling women "bitches."

The Communication Act provides that "No person within the jurisdiction of the United States shall utter any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communication." In this function - also entirely and obviously unconstitutional and degrading to a free people - it is the direct inheritor of the Comstock Laws of the nineteenth century, in which arch-puritan Anthony Comstock claimed the right to regulate the contents of the mails. Many were imprisoned not only for the distributing pornography, but for mailing basic educational materials on sex and contraception.

The Comstock laws were eventually struck down by the courts, as they simply had to be by a judicial system concerned even to pretend to pay lip-service to the Constitution. If the Comstock Laws are unconstitutional, so is the Federal Communications Commission.

In short, the FCC creates an American media that is corporate-dominated, dull to the point of stupefying, and entirely subject to government censorship.

So destroy the FCC or is it needed today in America?

 

[Dexter]

So what are you proposing as an alternative? If you're not licensing use of broadcast airwaves (and keep in mind this only applies to broadcast media, as in off-air radio and television, not satellite and cable distribution), then what? If you just let anyone broadcast wherever and whenever they want on any broadcast frequency they feel like... could you imagine the clusterfuck that'd produce? So... what's a viable alternative?

As for the censorship... well... I don't think I even need to tell you how stupid that is. That just speaks for itself.

 

[Worlds_Greatest_Booker]

I don't really know alot about this as the only time i here about it is from family guy commentaries etc (so if i come over as confusing and wrong forgive). but i do think that things have got to far now. but what i do find funny is how people complain about programmes like family guy when all they have to do is turn the channel over they dont have to watch it (their are age ratings for a reason). like how my old tutor when he younger used to work in a game shop and he told me how he used to see all the time mothers buying their 10 year old kids 15/18 games (like GTA) then coming back a couple of hours later complaining how bloody and violent it is (WTF!!!).

but for the FCC all they have to do is loosen up on certain programmes (people will get affend by something).

does my comment make sense..... probally not

 

[Kanye South]

The FCC is needed. It has to censor certain things, even if it sometimes goes overboard. Do you want your children to be sent homophobic or racist messages through television? Exactly. Say what you will about it, but the FCC's censorship helps keep control of society. We don't need any racist, homophobic, or sexist messages sent to kids.

 

[The Dewbliners]

I'm kinda torn on this issue. As a trained radio personality, I find the FCC to be completely neccessary. Sure, they occasionally overstep their bounds, and yes, they tend to overreact. But, they need to be there, if for no other reason, to police over the air frequencies. I mean, apparently, a large number of parents are too lazy to police what their kids watch. If they won't, then who?

On the other hand, as far as radio is concerned, they need to loosen up a little with the infractions and censorship on certain "Pacifica" words. Is the term "ass" really that bad? Still, the FCC is a neccessity here as well.

Also, like somebody else mentioned earlier, it would be a total clusterfuck if the FCC wasn't around to grant certain frequencies, to be used by a specific party. You could be hearing white supremacist rhetoric one minute, going straight into a program about the evils of corporate America. You need the FCC, or a like minded agency, for the good of broadcasting.

I will now step down off my soap box, since I've tossed in my two cents.

 

[Dexter]

The FCC is needed. It has to censor certain things, even if it sometimes goes overboard. Do you want your children to be sent homophobic or racist messages through television? Exactly. Say what you will about it, but the FCC's censorship helps keep control of society. We don't need any racist, homophobic, or sexist messages sent to kids.

Ya know what? I'm gonna throw you a curve ball here and say yes. I do want my kids sent those messages through television. And no, I'm not just being difficult, I'm serious.

If I absolutely have to choose between my kids having access to homophobia and racism, or being subjected to Draconian measures of censorship from my federal government? You're damned right I'll take the homophobes and the racists any day of the week. FARRRR lesser of the two evils.

The right to free speech, even when the speaker is a bigoted asshole, is still the... THE... most important right we have in this country. That's why is got that #1 spot on the Bill of Rights. So if you want to drag this conversation down to a choice between absolutes, the choice is still easy for me.