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Michael Powell to Leave FCC
Anonymous Slashdotter writes "Michael Powell, chairman of the FCC, will be stepping down from his post soon. 'Powell, who maintained a light regulatory hand as the nation's chief media watchdog but collected some of the largest indecency fines against U.S. broadcasters, planned to issue a statement Friday but was not expected to hold a formal news conference, these officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.'"
of course, his replacement might be even worse ..
That his replacement will be even worse.
Don't celebrate just yet.
At least, that was the original design. Someone needs to take them to court over the 1st ammendment. If someone's sign language is governed by free speech, then it follows that the broadcasts should also be governed by the same. They both travel over electro magnetic waves, right?
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
I wonder if Colin Powell's exodus is not unrelated to this.
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
I think you all are too harsh on my man Mikey P.
He heads an organization that is ostensibly about regulating new technologies, but employs almost 10 times as many lawyers as engineers, and the average age of the engineers is quite high (in the 40s, if memory serves). He has done a surprisingly good job of staying moderate in terms of amount of regulation. He generally knows when to stay out of the fray, and has been quick to officially adopt standards that have been cemented internationally.
He really has an impossible job, and I think he has been doing as well as anyone could have expected.
This is not a "tech site". This is just another partisan political blog.
None of the editors, posters or submitters understand anything remotely technical.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Powell, who maintained a light regulatory hand as the nation's chief media watchdog but collected some of the largest indecency fines against U.S. broadcasters
He didn't do much regulating, but he also did a lot of regulating. If that's not doublethink, i don't know what is.
Th
Last year, Powell repeatedly shielded VoIP services from intrusive government regulation and taxation. The FCC voted in February that Internet-only VoIP services were not subject to FCC oversight and expanded that view in November to protect VoIP from state regulators. ...
"He let us go out and build this new thing without knowing all the issues beforehand," said Jeff Citron, chief executive of Vonage, the largest U.S. provider of Internet telephone services. "He helped the telephone industry transition from the old to the new world."
Cellphone number portability, Do Not Call list, he's pushed hard to free up more spectrum for WiFi.
But he's republican so let's focus on the stuff we don't like.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Companies get to: Sell tons of new TVs, DVD players/Recorders and Tuners (yours isn't compatible anymore!), implement DRM (I can't wait until someone goes to jail for recording Enterprise), and the FCC gets to auction off a prime piece of the specturm for an ungodly sum.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
I call bullshit.
The same way that sodomy laws, the war on drugs, and all the other conservative morality laws are "less government."
The chocolate ration has been increased to 20 grams.
Funny, I heard it when it first happened. Powell sounded articulate and reasoned; Stern sounded like a buffoon. While what Powell was saying may still have been disagreeable, he didn't attack Stern personally, whereas that is all Stern did.
Riveting? Hardly.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
. My own view is that there are two buttons on a radio or television -- one changes the channel, the other one turns it off. Use them, monitor what your children listen to/watch and don't expect the government to babysit for you.
The Jackson incident is a glaring example of why that doesn't work, when normally I'd agree.
If I don't want my kids listening to or watching Stern, it's easy enough to lock them out of the E! channel when his show comes on.
But, no one expected to see that kind of shit during the Superbowl half-time show. The problem is the Superbowl was rated for all ages.
It pissed a lot of people off, and don't go off on some "well in Europe its ok.." rant. To many, it would be like going to McDonalds, and having them serve your kids vodka in their Happy Meals. People also knew it wasn't an accident, it was dead obvious that it wasn't. It was some washed up old skank trying to be shocking and prop up her failing career.
I'm all for leaving it up to the people, and a ratings system. If a show says they're rated for all ages, and then start cussing and showing nudity, they should be fined because IMO that's fraud.
The TV industry has been hammering the point that we pay by watching commercials lately. Fine, I accept that. Then if you advertise your program as rated all ages, and I pay for it by watching your commercials, and then you cross the line into adult content, well in the marketplace we call behavior like that a bait and switch.
What they did was wrong, and whether or not you personally were offended isn't the point.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Oh, it's not conservative/religious/etc. Remember Tipper Gore? She was laregly responsible for the explicit lyrics warning lables on music. Tipper Gore is not conservative at all from a political standpoint, she is known as a liberal. Conservative, liberal, they're all a bunch of Bill of Rights hating fools. I am becoming convinced that the sole purpose of the US government is to stifle to people, crush innovation, buy our food, and think for us. Any idiot across the whole right to left wing spectrum is capable of being worse than Michael Powell. Bush and Kerry are exactly the same, but that's another topic.
Don't forget the bill that is sitting on presiden't desk. The one that will allow the FCC to fine 'individual radio personalities'. I'm all for moderate regulation of our airways, but going after the actors/DJ's is a dangerous precedent.
I am the lord of the pun. Dance Knave!
Hardly anyone saw it during the superbowl -- her breast was flashed for a couple of seconds.
Most children spend their first months or years sucking on their mother's breast. Its no big deal anyway.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
On the one hand, people complain about the FCC slapping fines on large corporations for broadcasting media that they deem "inappropriate". Then in the very same breath, they complain about the FCC supporting large corporations.
If the FCC was truly all about supporting large networks, they would allow them to appeal to the ever-increasing moral decadence of our society completely unharrassed. After all, isn't that how large, successful corporations got to where they are today? They are in the business of selling a product that the public wants. If that happens to be smut, then they will push the envelope as far as they can until the free market or the FCC says enough is enough.
But God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us - (Romans 5:8)
Ok so which is worse nakid breast or some guy's head being chopped in. Personally I would rather my daughter see the breast than the chopped in head. The FCC seems perfectly happy with kids watching extreme violence but get's all disgruntled over band language (so what) or a nakid body part. Makes me wonder. Alex
"The Brady Bunch is back...working homicide"
Sexual and profane? I find it ironic that in most developed countries of the world sex and some profanity is not a big deal. In Europe people have been enjoying topless beaches and sexy commercials for a long time. What is wrong with that?
In the United States you can't see a boob on TV. Apparently, it will traumatize our children. However, if kids want to watch something really stupid like "Simple Life," or MTV, people are okay with it. Wake up, America! It is funny how Americans react to nudity and sexual themes on TV. Anytime there is a show / movie that inolves that, there is a lot of mastrubation going on. Christian convservaties are bashing everything from Sponge Bob Square Pants to Desparate Housewifes because of refrences to homosexuals (I have no idea why they think that Sponge is gay) or some horny women with bad attitudes. I am sure there are no women like that in real life :)
We have become so uptight and afraid of human sexuality and desires that our president aims to curb women's rights and replace sexual ed with teachings on abstinence. What a pure nonsense! Perhaps we need to learn that life is not pure and simple. There sex, drugs and rock-'n'-roll among many othr things. Women can be horny, there are breasts and nudity does take place in real life. People of all ages can love, cheat, have sex and enjoy their lives the way the want. There is nothing wrong with that. The world is not perfect and we need to learn how to deal with it. Instead of focusing on profanity and nudity, how about we focus on public education, poverty and ecology?
Yeah! It's the same as when the phone company went to touch tone and my pulse phones didn't work anymore! Oh, wait...
Look, your TV isn't going to be useless anytime soon. Heck, that day is so far out that it'll probably break before then anyhow.
Relax. No one has suggested that everyone discards their TV on any give date. The regulatory date given to TV stations to upgrade their signal doesn't mean they'll terminate analog broadcasts that day too.
I have an old TV that only has RF in, but this trivially cheap dongle let's me watch cable in the garage. I won't be taking it to the transfer station until it cacks.
And what does HD broadcasting have to do with DVD player/recorders? I don't get what your beef is.
Joe Liebermann & Video games.
"My God...It's full of ads!" -Fry, about the Internet, Futurama
Here's the thing - I bet your kids (if indeed your kids were watching) didn't even notice her boob.
There just wasn't anything to see. For less than a second part of her breast was exposed. Even if you look at it in slow motion (which, I'll admit, I have), you get just the merest glimpse of her nipple.
The real problem wasn't the boob flashing, it was the insistence of people in the media that it was something worth talking about. It wasn't, and it still isn't.
You say what they did was wrong - in your opinion that's true, and I'm not going to try to change that. But in the scheme of the things TV does wrong, it was trivial.
Does it deserve a fine? Sure, as you said, flashing a boob does not fit into the rating scheme. But the fine should have been a tiny little one, not half a million. It was half a million because Powell (see, I can be on topic!) is a judgemental prude, not because it was in the best interests of our country.
I'm not saying you shouldn't be offended. Go ahead and be offended. Just take a breath and realize that a sub-second flash of a boobie isn't a big deal. Save your energy for something important. You know, like being mad at Randy Moss for pretending to moon a bunch of football fans. Oh wait, that wasn't big deal either.
I don't know what you are talking about, he was asking legitimate questions. Asking Powell about his job experience is totally related as was actually getting to grill a public servant about his perceived cronyism. Like the thing about Oprah, he said there wasn't a double standard, but if that isn't then I don't know what is. Stern never called him a moron or anything like that, if asking him some tough questions is rude well then I guess he's rude but give me a break.
~S
Rupert frickin' Murdock owns a major piece of satellite direct broadcast, which as a whole is almost a monopoly. Most of the internet content that most people see and hear is owned or controlled by the same faces that own/control existing modes of info transmission.TCP transmission has become very concentrated, as has cellular infrastructure.
So, where's all this competition Mr. Powell talked about? It's nonexistant. It's looking like the stewards of US industry didn't mind the previous Soviet command economy per se, just that it wasn't them in command.
Luke, help me take this mask off