I do believe there's "Indecency" in our Cable Media today....

[KoKo]

How does one define "Indecency?" I don't know...but "I know it when I see it!" Some examples: Jerry Springer's abuse of the "innocents" in our culture. Reality TV Shows done by either Donald Trump or some other Capitalist Hack who tries to abuse folks looking for employment. Movies which only exist to show Violence and "Gratuitous Sex" without love just for tittilation and without any discernable PLOT! Making the gratuitous sex and the gratuitous violence all the more apparant by not being relevant to any kind of plot.

Rampant Commercialism...where products are sold for gratification, sexual pleasure or greed. Lawyers and Pharmaceutical Companies advertising their wares which lead to a crude view of folks with honest grievances being swept up by "Ambulance Chaser Lawyers," or Pharmaceutical Companies wishing to hook you on their latest promise of hope to deal with what ever ailes you...even if their product causes you harm...leading to work for the "Ambulance Chasers."

I believe that all workers should work to create individual "White CollarUnions" that would promote their particular field of expertise. "White Collar Unions" working against the Corporate CEO's and Board Members who are lining their pockets and working against the employees and the long term stability and health of the "Company/Corporate entity.

Freedom of the Press. In whatever form it takes, our airwaves need to have Diversity. We OWN OUR AIRWAVES...but our Government has decided to give a few Corporations the total control in a trade off for their
compliance with the promotion of Government Propaganda over true "freedom of speech."

I wonder how many DU'ers would agree with me...? :shrug:

Edited for typo's...

[EVDebs]

1. Some bad language on PBS documentary on the troops in Iraq

and you'd think the FCC had better things to do, like media consolidation ... trying to prevent it... and the 'fairness doctrine' trying to reinstate it...

I can dream.

[KoKo]

10. Bad words in a documentary about war...where bad words would be

part of the interviews is different. And, I'm not advocating some kind of blanket censure. But, some stuff just isn't "tasteful." The argument always comes down to "What might be tastful to me might not be to you, and what is Indecent to you, is not Indecent to me."

Somehow for a long time we got buyy before drug companies and lawyers were allowed to advertise their wares and when "hygiene products" were forced to be more "discreet" in their advertising. There are ways to compromise. One can often get the "idea" across more cleverly with subtlety than the "In Your Face" stuff designed for "shock and awe" that we see on our airwaves the last 10 years or so...most particularly since the Chimp...

[benddem]

2. There's a lot of indecency

on Faux news, O'Reilly, Hannity et al. Seriously there is too much. I find the Cialis and Viagra commercials really awful.

[Enquiringkitty]

3. I find it funny that some parents defend the violent video games

their kids play but complain about the so-called sex they seem to see on cartoons.

I had one woman jump all over me because asked her not to send the video games over with her son when he came to play with my son. She said maybe he shouldn't come over if I feel that way, that I might want to show them porn instead. I told her that violence was something no one wants their child to become part of but at least sex was something that I hope one day he will know and enjoy with someone he loves and violent with no one. She said I was crazy.

[classof56]

6. If I have not welcomed you to DU before, I do so now.

Glad to have you with us. What I worry most about when my grandsons go to friends' houses is the presence of guns and their possible accessibility to the kids. Next would be the violent video games, and last of course is the cartoons like Spongebob, Shrek, TeleTubbies, that whole crowd. Just kidding about those cartoons!
:-) I like your approach--I'm appalled at some of the violence parents let their kids watch. The thing I most fear where my grandsons are concerned is the day they're marched off to one of Bush's upcoming wars. Let us do whatever it takes to make sure that day does not come!!

Tired Old Cynic

[Warpy]

4. Broadcast media are vulnerable

and petitions should be circulated every time a local broadcast station's license comes up for renewal, complaining that biased news with loaded language that only presents one side of an issue is not serving the public interest.

We can't do much about cable "news" but pull the plug or boycott the advertisers.

However, petitioning the FCC and being pains in the ass for local stations to deal with may get some action, especially with Sinclair and Citadel stations. They're OUR airwaves.

[Wilms]

5. Wow. If I I could nominate a reply, I'd nominate yours.

Love to see thread on THAT topic.

[mongo]

7. Here's someone who agrees with you

"Our whole public life today is like a hothouse for sexual ideas and stimulations. Theater, art, literature, cinema, press, posters and window displays must be cleaned of all manifestations of our rotting world and placed in the service of a moral, political and cultural idea."

- Adolf Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf.

[KoKo]

9. Oh Puleeeeze.... Right now we have an "imbalance" in our culture of

selling sex for profit. Let's get some balance back.

[mongo]

11. TV shows become successful because people want to watch

them. I find fear factor especially distasteful, but I don't think that we need to organize a boycott, or write congress about it.

Your cries of too much gratuitous sex are no different than the fundies keeping the PBS buster cartoon from being aired because it showed a lesbian family in a positive light, or Robin Williams skit being pulled from the Oscars tonight because it made fun of Dobson's views.

Freedom of the Press. In whatever form it takes, our airwaves need to have Diversity. We OWN OUR AIRWAVES...

We don't really own the airwaves. The government grants licenses to companies for a particular frequency because it is a finite resource. The media companies then develop programs hoping that they can attract viewers.

If "we" did own the airwaves, then your cries for "diversity" would be drowned out by the fundies cries for "traditional values". They have more money and are better organized than the humanist left. There would be nothing more than spin-offs of Leave it to Beaver and Touched by an Angel on TV.

Face it, TV is what it is because that's what people want to watch. When you cry out that TV is bad, M-kay, and decide that it should be changed to meet your values, you are no different from the fundie right who would sanitize our society so that everything is appropriate for an 8yo.

[KoKo]

14. Here's a little info on WHO REALLY Owns the Airwaves....

And, you need to remember that ALL members of a Democracy have a right to express their opinion about what goes out over the airwaves. That's Me as well as You...and "Compromise" is the best way of dealing with it. Right now one side has a huge advantage over the other...and I own those airwaves along with you... There's a big difference between "Buster, Sponge Bob and "gratuitious sex." Where's the big outcry over the Simpson's Gay Marriage? Silence. I don't have a problem with that...but the Fundies wanted Bob and Buster off. Equating everyone who want's some regulation with Fundies is very extreme, as you know..

------------------------
Ralph Nader on Technology


FCC is hapless agent in media regulation
These media moguls are doing all this on our property - the public airwaves - and paying us no rent for exclusive use of our property. Yet they are deciding who says what and who doesn't say what 24 hours a day. The public airwaves are the property of the American people. The FCC is our hapless, industry-indentured real estate agent that gives away the spectrum.
Source: In the Public Interest, "Giving Airwaves to Media Moguls" May 31, 2003

The media needs more diversity and competition
There remains the base of a large movement for recovering some diversity, localism and competition from the mass media. It is bad enough that about 90 percent of what is carried on television and radio is advertising and entertainment. Our country needs serious talk, more good reporters, and citizen access to the great but unseen and unheard talent in our land - from artists to candidates for office.
Source: In the Public Interest, "Giving Airwaves to Media Moguls" May 31, 2003

FCC gave away $70B in airwave licenses to large corporations
In 1996, Congress quietly handed over to existing broadcasters the rights to broadcast digital television on the public airwaves-a conveyance worth $70 billion-in exchange for. nothing.

Although the public owns the airwaves, the broadcasters have never paid for the right to use them. The FCC has recently begun to recognize the large monetary value of the licenses and typically auctions licenses. The 1996 Telecommunications Act, however, prohibited such an auction for distribution of digital television licenses, and mandated that they be given to existing broadcasters.

How to explain this giveaway, especially when other industries, such as the data transmission companies, were eager to bid for the right to use the spectrum? Look no further than the National Association of Broadcasters. The NAB are huge political donors & have close ties to key political figures.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:U9PDmacdT3gJ:www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Ralph_Nader_Technology.htm+Public+Owns+Airwaves&hl=en

Not surprisingly, the nightly news was silent on this giant giveaway. It represents a failure of our working democracy
Source: Cutting Corporate Welfare, p. 17-18 Oct 9, 2000

Domain name registration needs openness to replace monopoly
The federal government currently contracts with Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), to manage domain name registrations (including .com, .org, and .net). NSI’s monopoly on the valuable .com domain names has turned a tiny initial investment into a firm with market capitalization of $2.5 billion-thanks to control of the power to sell the public the right to use their own domain names. At no time did the government seek any competitive bids to determine the prices that consumers and businesses should pay for domain name registrations.

The federal government is now trying to find ways to introduce competition and replace the current NSI monopoly with something new. This new initiative raises a number of questions regarding its lack of accountability, and it is justified largely on the basis that the NSI monopoly needs to be “fixed.” But it is hard to see how the creation of a new unaccountable body constitutes a “fix.”

----------------------------------------------

From Make Them Accoutable website...questions about who owns the airwaves...


Hi, I’m Carolyn Kay with MakeThemAccountable.com



Last week, I got a message from liberal talk show host Peter Werbe that his show, available on the i.e.america radio network, has been dropped by a conservative station owner in Santa Cruz, California. I put out an alarm, asking people to write to the station owner, and I found out to my surprise that some people don’t realize that we own the airwaves. Not rich people who can go around buying radio stations.

Here are some of the messages and replies.

From Chito

I support Werbe's position on the Shrub, of course. But isn't that a private station and therefore in complete control of their programming? Or does the FCC license obligate them to broadcast a balanced repertoire because of something similar to the public access regulations for cable?

My response

WE own the airwaves, Chito. You and me. There once was a Fairness Doctrine that required those who use OUR airwaves to report both sides on controversial issues. That law was repealed during the Reagan administration, and part of the understanding was that no one media outlet had to provide alternative voices or alternative points of view, since those would be reflected in other outlets in the community.

Well, I live in Chicago, where we voted overwhelmingly for Al Gore. The conservative suburbs came very close to voting for Gore, also. But we have two newspapers that are both conservative, and one talk radio station that has three hours of liberal programming PER WEEK. The rest is right-wing promotion of hatred for everything they don't believe in.

We the citizens own the airwaves. We license the right to use those airwaves to private parties like the owners of KOMY, and we have the right to demand certain things from them in return. The demands we've made in the past have been eroded over the years by Mau Mau tactics from the right wing. I think it's time we stood up and took our rights back.

Chito wrote back and gave me a quote from a website he was directed to by the station owner.

>>With some 25,425* FCC licensed broadcast outlets in the country, there exists plenty of opportunity for all viewpoints without the heavy hand of government forcing "fairness."

Sure, there exists plenty of "opportunity" of "fairness." But there is no fairness.

If the number 25,425 is correct, it becomes even more ludicrous that so little liberal talk is available. Take a look at my Unconservative Listening page, and you'll see what I mean. There are so few faces on that page that it would never occur to you just looking at it that half a million more voters voted for Gore than for Bush last year.

Go to MakeThemAccountable.com/listening to see what I mean. That’s MakeThemAccountable.com/listening.
http://makethemaccountable.com/listening/index.htm

------------------------------
Can CBS Deny Access to Issue Ads?
From Andrew Somers,
Your Guide to Civil Liberties.
FREE GIFT with Newsletter! Act Now!
The Airwaves Are Owned by the Public - Not Corporations.
By Andrew Somers

Last week we discussed the issue of CBS censoring the "advocacy ads" of certain political action groups during the Superbowl. I received a number of emails regarding that issue, some claiming that CBS, as a corporation, has the "civil right" to deny airing the ads paid for by those groups.

The response to this contention, is no. Corporations are not persons or citizens. Corporations are not able to vote in elections, and have no special rights protected by the constitution. The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of any civil right therein being extended to a corporation.

But more to the point, CBS is using the public airwaves for interstate commerce. The public, not CBS, owns the airwaves, and CBS is granted the right to use them for commercial broadcasting. In the Communications Act of 1934, broadcast entities were required to allow for access for opposing views, as broadcasting is a public forum. Theoretically, CBS claims that it broadcasts no ads of a controversial or "issue related" nature, and thus need not provide any access to "issue" ads.
The upshot: CBS is using airwaves, that we the people own. CBS is a corporation and not a real person, having no "real" rights other than those that we the people grant them. One should consider the first amendment for a moment - the need for we the people to be exposed to issues is a critical component of our socio-political system. A public forum, such as the public broadcast mediums, must provide at least equal access to issues.

No one is suggesting that CBS offer ad time for free, but denying advertising because they disagree with the message is a violation of the public trust. A trust WE give them to use the airwaves WE own.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:15enkGSMHbMJ:civilliberty.about.com/cs/freespeech/a/cbs021004.htm+The+people+own+the+airwaves&hl=en

[depakid]

8. I find every bit of that indecent and repugnant

it's why I don't watch much TV.

[KoKo]

12. Kick for "Indecency in the Media!" n/t

[Cleita]

13. You still have a choice.

I don't watch any realty shows, or Jerry Springer type shows. I also don't watch any of the infotainment talk shows on the BS news channels. You can still vote with your remote although I agree it's getting harder. If I find that my TV has become as one sided as the media news, then I will turn the offensive thing off. Period.

I wonder if CNN misses me? I haven't watched them in months and I used to watch all the time, so one of these days, the perpetrators of these shows are going to wake up and realize no one is watching them. If people do watch them, then I guess there is a market for them and who am I to appoint myself the good taste police?

:shrug:

On edit: All my life I have had to listen to music I don't want to listen to and conversations I wasn't interested in, so sometimes there are things around you that you don't like, but you can't stop them.

[KoKo]

15. I still think there's "Indecency." No one has convinced me otherwise....

sorry...Freedom of Expression can get carried TOO FAR...But I'm not into Chimp Book Burning or McCarthy tactics here...it's just that it's all swung into the Falwell/Robertson version of "Corporate Perversion" to go along with the dismantling of our "Social Network." They sell SEX the way they sell "Social Security Privitization Give Aways" and Viagra Ads which help the Drug Companies i.e. Big Pharma Give Aways!