Cable TV Decency Standards

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Many things are said and shown on cable TV that are not permitted on regular broadcast TV. One Senator has proposed regulating cable TV to conform to the decency standards currently used by the FCC with respect to broadcast TV. While cognizant of the fact that those standards are themselves quite deficient, I think this would be a movement in the right direction.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/01/technology/satellite_decency.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

 

[Puritanhead]

I agree sorta kinda--- I used to wrestle with the states' rights aspect of it of that sorta regulation, and should the feds be doing it... i kind of just tacitly accept FCC now. The standards are too loose now, even with networks. For example, in the 1990s ABC primetime used to push limits with flashing brief nudity in NYPD Blue and made quite a fuss. Cable TV even the non-HBO, non-Showtime stuff is getting pretty rancid as far as decency standards. Comedy Central and MTV are downright repugnant... Whatever, humor I found in past on some comedy shows, I simply cannot consume such broadcasts now. MTV pushes the boundaries in defiance, and corrupts countless young people with their oversexualized relativistic do-your-own thing mantra. I think parents curtailing the pay TV, and simply renting movies selectively is preferable as well as blocking out the MTV, etc. We cannot look to Washington to keep our TVs clean.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Yes, the states' right issue is a very legitimate one, which I set aside for the moment. Far be it from me to advocate more federal regulation, except to the extent that our magistrates can and should prohibit public immorality and blasphemy in the media.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

In related developments, Adelphia Cable just announced plans to drop their X-rated channel, and the new U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week announced plans to start prosecutions by the Department of Justice for obscenity.

 

[Puritanhead]

Yes, the states' right issue is a very legitimate one, which I set aside for the moment. Far be it from me to advocate more federal regulation, except to the extent that our magistrates can and should prohibit public immorality and blasphemy in the media.

Well it's tied to interstate commerce I reckon as broadcasting is interstate... but I've read seem some real fuzzy causal reasoning by federal judges in cases to effectively rationalize federal law touching almost everything because of some loose causal connection to interstate commerce.

[Edited on 3-2-2005 by Puritanhead]

 

[Puritanhead]

One problem is the all-or-nothing game at the federal level has often eroded more stricter "community standards" of decency. At Liberty, in our Contemporary Issues class, they utilized a book called Moral Dillemas which offered a poignant criticism of our obscene culture. I recommend it.