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FCC Settles Censorship Claims with ClearChannel
The Importance of writes "Earlier this week Slashdot debated whether the FCC should be abolished. One of the reasons many think the FCC should go away is because of censorship. Well, yesterday, the FCC settled all existing censorship investigations with Clear Channel for $1.75M and a promise to be better in the future, such as by firing DJs for their first offense. Clear Channel also plead guilty to violating indecency standards, but no one is saying what, exactly they said that was wrong. On the other hand, the FCC seems to have forgotten that they
decided a couple of months ago to regulate profanity in addition to indecency. In other FCC news, they've posted the internet section of the FCC History Project."
The Federal Communications Commission had already proposed almost $800,000 in fines against the radio giant ... but the settlement wipes the slate clean.
So the payoff wasn't for actual fines, it was for the threat of fines to come.
Sounds like a shake-down to me.
Sigs cause cancer.
...someone posts the inevitable "think of the children" post?
Shouldn't all the details of settlements be published by the FCC? There's not enough info here...
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
They are both evil. The FCC for censorship, Clear Channel for being a monopolist and not fighting for the First Amendment.
From Powell's statement...
... and Ernest Miller made a great catch, there:
In addition, those accused of violating the Commission's rules will be suspended and if ultimately found to violate our rules, will be terminated.
!
"That's great. Accusations lead to suspension. And, one foul-up and you're fired. How many people could handle a situation where one accidental word that is commonly used could get you suspended and/or fired? That's something to be proud of."
Further down, same page, he also came up with the pithy "Apparently, self-censorship forced upon us by government is better than direct censorship."
Now, if only we could find out exactly what CC admitted to doing wrong, why, we'd all have a better chance of not committing the same horrible acts ourselves.
<grrr>
See, this is what happens when you get across the board influence of one political party in government and large private sector businesses. Clear Channel is basically rolling over to give the FCC a great legal precedent for censorship advocates.
What I don't seem to get is why this is happening. I mean.. I know that some of it is not meant for kids, but PARENTS need to learn to turn those programs off in front of their kids. No one is forcing you, or your kids, to watch it.
Hmmm.
These puritanical attitudes make us the laughing stock of the entire world. I can't see us being taken seriously until we stop acting like 12 year olds every time a breast pops out on TV, or some shock jock says something naughty.
DeviantArt Page
NSFWwas the Clear Channel CEO saying that all content, including pay cable and satelite radio, should be held to the same standard as public broadcast. His rationale: for the kids.
*pfff* Sorry but there's a reason why there is "public" standards on "public" channels. This wasn't about any sort of moral or ethical standard. This guy was just pissy because all adults were voting with their $$$ and going off to adult-level content on HBO or XM radio that he, as bound by public broadcast, could never provide.
So his whole thing is to level the playing field by screwing everybody else. What a nimrod.
What is music when you despise all sound?
I find it funny that of all companies, Clear Channel is fighting the FCC. This is the company that sent the memo telling its stations not to play anti-war songs after Sept. 11th, organized the pro-war rallies in the runup to the Iraq war, and whose owner, Tom Hicks, was involved in several of Bush's major scandals from his early life and is a big contributor.
Specifically, Hicks first heavily funded both of Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. Then, Bush appointed Hicks chair of UTIMCO, which manages UT's financial money. Bush also got regulations so that Hicks wouldn't have to disclose where he was putting the University's money. It was later revealed that he had put 525 million dollars into assets owned by himself and major GOP donors (Carlyle Group, Maverick Capital, Bass Brothers Enterprises, etc). In 1998, he made Bush a multimillionaire by buying the Texas Rangers for far more than it was estimated to be valued at (and which Bush had been given twice as many shares as he put money in). Hicks resigned under pressure in 1999, but has been a huge donor still.
I'm not surprised that they got a nice settlement from the FCC. Not surprised at all. I'm not even sure why the FCC bothered to start anything to begin with. 1.75 million dollars for a company the size of Clear Channel? Why didn't they just make them say "My Bad!" in public and call that enough?
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
Even though I do not agree with FCC censorship it would be better if they were not a corrupt organization. Any attempts at 'censorship' and policing the airwaves are easily swayed with money. If ClearChannel really had commited the supposed crime of violating indecency rules then the FCC should've continued with charges rather than allowed themselves to be bought off.
One of these days the FCC will have to go once they've become so corrupted they'll first ask for a settlement before trying to fine them.
We're in the 21st century, right? Why do we still need censorship by the government? Can we not trust the people who make these shows to show some self-restraint?
So what if Fox shows people screwing eachother on live TV over the public waves?.. It'll be for a short time before people get bored of seeing it and start looking for better shows... Eventually, when their ratings drop, the producers will realize that overdoing something will have adverse effects..
Banning/censoring something never worked before.. Why should it work now?
Karma: Bad (but who really cares anyway?)
I'll take monopolists over theocratic moralists any day of the week.
At least I can appeal to people's better judgement by saying that ClearChannel is anti-free market, but try talking reason to the crazy religious people who think a nipple is evil.
Religion is simply not rational, its emotional. No offense, but thats a fact. If it was rational it could be proven and there would be no need for faith.
We really need to get remove censorship powers from the FCC and let the network censors take care of the job. I mean, we have TV ratings now and everything. The FCC's role of "moral policeman" is antiquated and not needed, and now its just being abused for what looks like purely political purposes.
A bazillion pecune laws and selective enforcement are critical tools for a corrupt bueracracy. That's how China was ruled for centuries.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
This doesn't hurt clear channel one little bit. They wanted this fine, to get anti-bush Howard Stern off the air. See, clear channel is chummy with GWB, and now they open the floodgates for fines on Viacom, Stern's main network. Clear Channel takes some pennies out, hands it to the FCC - The FCC completely doggystyles Viacom - Howard is gone, Clear Channel gets more listeners. What a nice world.
I can't wait to get GWB outta office and be done with these Christian Right Wing lunatics. They should all be in jail.
One of the largest media companies in the US will not stand up for freedom of speech! What good is a media company that does not protect that freedom. Instead they bend over and hand over cash to secure their empire.
It sure seems like there is a lot of similarities between the fcc indecency crusade (at least someone interpretation) and DRM crusade.
People we need to vote in november and with our dollars.
Shit, I'm so fucking happy to not live in the fucking US. At least here we've got the fucking right to use fucking obscene words when we fucking feel like it. No shit.
Can't they just leave choice-of-words to the people themselves? What's the whole thing about curse words? I've always seen them as mere exclamation marks. Oh well, I guess some people's hobby is limiting other people's freedoms.
"In out view, industry-developed guidlines should be as effective as Government-imposed regulations without running afoul of the First Amendment protections that we all respect," John Hogan CEO, Clear Channel Radio.
Well, isn't it nice that the monopoly and ourt government have found a viable soulution to that pasky First Amendment? I was so worried that our Constitution might interfere with censorship. God bless these clever, clever boys.
Looks good for your age..
Someone with mod points needs to give them to MZ6's post. People need to stop blaming this mess on "Dubya", because its the Democrats' fault as much as the Republicans'... I'd like to remind people that the Decency Enforcement Act was passed by the House of Representatives by a margin of 391 to 22. So stop blaming Dubya for all of your problems, gripes, and issues, and start blaming those responsible - soccer moms from the hippie generation that can't take responsibility and expect the government to do it for them.
Yeah, man. God knows you can't swear in the United States. I mean, fuck, you'd be hanged. Wait, I just said fuck.
The FCC is dealing with public airwaves. Right or wrong, that's what they deal with. Example? HBO. Have you ever seen the Sopranos? They fucking say fuck a lot!
One of the things Howard Stern was in hot water for was a racist remark made on air by a caller(I believe it was a caller; I doubt it was Stern himself, but it may have been a guest). In some countries, racist speech is not protected. So you can take your "yay I can swear" thing and stick it.
The FCC doesn't control just every single area of "speech" in this country. Another example? Playboy. I've got a whole damn stack of them.
Oh, and it isn't anyone's hobby -- the FCC people get paid. (And yes, it bugs the shit out of me that they get tax dollars.)
So glad not to live in the "fucking US"? See what would happen to Janet Jackson if her tit-covering was removed in, oh, Iran or Saudi Arabia. Hell, her face covering. Oh wait, she doesn't wear one. Because she's in the "fucking US" where women aren't kept as property.
Do we have a long way to go? Yes, we do. And progress has been made from a time when Buddy Holly wasn't played because he was singing "jungle music." But we're a whole, whole lot better off than a whole fucking lot of people.
You've got to be kidding. Plenty of hosts on Clear Channel criticize Bush regularly. Removing the Dixie Chicks from playlists was done in response to listener demand, not some partisan decision from management.
You know, I keep hearing about this Dixie Chicks ban too, but from the two Clear Channel country stations (in two different cities) I've listened to, both have been playing the Dixie Chicks quite a bit over the past 18 months. And, from what I understand, Clear Channel HQ has access to all playlists and logs, so it's not like they don't know about it...