For all the political fights over controversial figures getting high-profile jobs in the Bush administration (Bolton, Rice, Gonzales, etc.), it’s worth noting that some of the hires are relatively anonymous, but equally scary. For example, meet Penny Nance, the newest member of the Federal Communications Commission team.<\/p>\n
Throughout Bush’s first term, the Republican base was never fully satisfied with FCC Chairman Michael Powell. His interests were corporate in nature, and he tended to treat “decency issues” as an afterthought. With his departure after the election, Bush tapped Kevin Martin to head the agency and the right was thrilled. Now we’re seeing why<\/a>.<\/p>\n A woman who has for years helped lead the grassroots war against indecent broadcasting has joined the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to advise the agency’s new chairman, Kevin Martin, on policy matters.<\/p>\n Anti-pornography attorneys hope Penny Nance will be instrumental in helping commissioners enforce prohibitions against broadcast indecency. She will work as a special adviser in the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. <\/p>\n Pat Trueman of the Family Research Council said the move shows Martin is committed to keeping objectionable content off the public airwaves.<\/p>\n “He was committed before he was named chairman, when he was an FCC commissioner, and he is today,” Trueman said. “This is further evidence of his commitment — that he would reach out to someone who’s been a leader in the effort to protect families, and the fight against indecency on television, and bring that person on staff.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Indeed, the entire GOP base is ecstatic with the choice. Which leads to the question, who is Penny Nance? And how did Martin come to learn of Nance’s work? After the far right was upset about CBS airing the “Victoria’s Secret Lingerie Show,” Nance organized a meeting<\/a> between the FCC, the Southern Baptist Convention, the Parents Television Council<\/a>, the Family Research Council, and Bill Bennett’s Empower America. Martin was apparently impressed by what Nance had to say.<\/p>\n And now, Nance will have the ear of the FCC’s chairman on a full-time basis. James Dobson and his group are thrilled.<\/p>\n “She has been very vocal and active on a number of pro-family issues over the past few years,” said Daniel Weiss, Focus on the Family Action’s media and sexuality analyst. “Just the creation of this office is a positive sign. The whole point of having a public liaison is to foster a greater working relationship with various people on the issues. <\/p>\n “It has added importance because it’s someone like Penny, who has such a history of activism and efforts to protect families already.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The FCC’s power isn’t as vast as some would like, but expect a whole lot of whining about the need for milder, milquetoast-ish television programs between now and the end of Bush’s term, with Nance leading the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For all the political fights over controversial figures getting high-profile jobs in the Bush administration (Bolton, Rice, Gonzales, etc.), it’s worth noting that some of the hires are relatively anonymous, but equally scary. For example, meet Penny Nance, the newest member of the Federal Communications Commission team. Throughout Bush’s first term, the Republican base was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nNance is the president, founder, and principal lobbyist for a right-wing group called the Kids First Coalition, which seeks rid the airwaves of content Nance finds morally objectionable and, in a bit of a non sequitor, ban abortion. She’s also served as a board member for the ultra-conservative Concerned Women for America.<\/p>\n