FCC Gives Broadcasters More Time to Combat Weight of Public Opinion
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 15, 2013) – Always in the mood to accommodate the whims of the broadcast industry, the FCC extended the time for reply comments on its plan to weaken broadcast decency standards. The move on Friday, July 12 was an effort to give broadcasters additional time to review and respond to the more than 100,000 comments posted by the public that oppose any change to decency enforcement standards.
Why is it necessary to keep moving the goal posts? First, the FCC extended the time for comments by a month. Now they extended the time to reply to those initial comments until August 2. The message from the 100,000 Americans who commented is simple: less indecency, less profanity, and more FCC enforcement for network TV and radio.
The public has spoken and now the only question is does the FCC, the guardian of TV decency, listen to the public? Many think not, as this comment filed on July 15 by a concerned citizen indicates, “Why continue the pretense that the FCC is actually serving any purpose except to grant rubber stamp approval to every producer of filth and indecency?”
This extension came in the same week as the release of a new study by our friends at Parents Television Council on indecency demonstrating how broadcasters are sexually exploiting teen girls. Underage girls on primetime broadcast television are more likely to be presented in sexually exploitative scenes than adult women. It is not likely that portraying teen girls as sex objects will help the case of broadcasters.
What the FCC needs is commissioners who take their jobs seriously and enforce the duly passed law of Congress, which prohibits indecency and profanity on the public airwaves. Morality in Media, along with 70 other groups, delivered a letter to all U. S. Senators urging them to vote down President Obama’s nominee to chair the FCC, Tom Wheeler, unless he commits to vigorously enforce the federal decency law.