Conservative Republicans, who are bound together by the principle of limited government, the free market, and the power of consumers’ choice, have taken quite an interest in your television.
[Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin] is now poised to win the broader indecency war. During the long hot summer in Washington, he has been quietly meeting with religious activists and industry leaders to organize a push for new standards for broadcast, cable and satellite television. At the same time, Martin’s allies in the Senate have been considering new laws that could increase broadcast indecency fines, break up cable TV offerings to allow parents to cut off racy channels, and — most controversially — give the FCC the power to fine basic cable programs, like MTV’s “Real World” and Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” for crude and lewd content.
As Jesse Taylor noted this morning, we’re talking about stricter FCC regulation of cable and satellite radio broadcasts. And at this point, Martin is listening to those who are telling him exactly what he wants to hear.
In the meantime, Martin, a former White House aide to President Bush, has been meeting privately with evangelical activists to assure them of his commitment to change the television landscape. The government does not regulate shows distributed over cable or satellite television for indecency. Similarly, there are no indecency limits on the content of satellite radio, where shock-jock Howard Stern sought refuge and will begin broadcasting next year. But in one session this summer, Martin told activists that he is privately reaching out to industry leaders to address racy content on basic cable and satellite television, says Rick Schatz, the president of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, a Christian ministry. “He said the free rein of cable and satellite and satellite radio is not acceptable,” says Schatz, who sat in on the meeting. “He’s committed to seeing something is done during his tenure.”
Unfortunately, Martin’s approach is fundamentally flawed, and not just because of a neo-puritan standard for entertainment. He told lawmakers during a House hearing in February 2004, “If cable and satellite operators continue to refuse to offer parents more tools, basic indecency and profanity restrictions may be a viable alternative.”
First, cable and satellite operators don’t use public airwaves, so I’m not sure where Martin finds the authority to regulate. Second, there are plenty of tools already available — including the V-chip, channel-blocking options that all domestic cable companies already offer, and … what’s that called again? … the remote control that allows folks to change the channel.
Under the current rules, material is indecent if it is “offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.” But standards vary widely from community to community, household to household. Family Research Council legal director Patrick A. Trueman said he recently traveled to a Marriott Hotel in Houston, where he said three separate cable stations — not pay-per-view stations — were showing “hardcore pornography,” which he described as “sex acts.” He demanded that the hotel staff come disable the channels. The staff told him one of the stations was Showtime. “I don’t have cable just for this reason,” said Trueman, who previously worked on obscenity cases in the Justice Department. “If I had cable, I would not want my children viewing that.”
If the activists have their way, Trueman’s children will not be the only Americans barred from watching sex — explicit or implied — on television. For now, they have the political winds at their backs, and a sympathetic captain at the helm of the FCC. Before taking his current job, Martin served as a lawyer for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and later as a White House aide. His wife, Catherine J. Martin, worked for Vice President Cheney until recently, when she took another job in the White House to work for the president on policy and planning issues.
There is little doubt that Martin knows the political stakes of the coming fight. In 2003, he shared his concerns over indecency in a letter to the Parents Television Council, a group that has called for a boycott of shows like the WB’s “Everwood” because it features adults who encourage teenage characters to use birth control and, in one case, have an abortion. “Certainly broadcasters and cable operators have significant First Amendment rights, but these rights are not without boundaries,” Martin wrote to the group. “They are limited by law. They also should be limited by good taste.”
That’s “good taste” as defined by Martin and the Republican base.
It does set up an interesting conflict, though. Will Congress and the administration cater to the demands of religious right activists and their champions at the FCC, or side with big-money interests at Viacom (CBS, MTV, Comedy Central), General Electric (NBC, Bravo) and News Corp. (Fox)?