The FCC Done Lost Its Fool Mind

There was a story up Yesterday on Drudge about Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell considering holding a license revocation hearing against CBS after the Janet-Justin Titty incident

This amounts to saber rattling and attention grabbing in the worst kind of way.

I think this smacks of the FCC realizing that it is increasingly a dinosaur entity and that its stranglehold on the American broadcast media is precariously close to shattering.

Much as when Marvel Comics decided to ignore and drop the Comics Code Authority, the broadcast media have been flexing their muscles and straining the limits of what is acceptable/decent as defined by the FCC for quite some time. With the advent of Cable television and its lack of overall censors the broadcasters (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox and to a lesser extent WB and Paramount) have found themselves losing viewers to programming on cable that does not have the government watching as closely over it (just as there was a shifting of many comic readers over to the more 'mature' DC lines and to the vertigo imprint specifically, when those books went codeless)

I think there is a laughable lunacy abounding in this nation when something like a bared breast is considered a source of great contention, but a game that glorifies violence is considered wholesome family entertainment. Don’t think that by that last statement that I’m declaring the Superbowl Halftime show wholesome family entertainment-I’m not, but I don’t think that the ACCIDENTAL flashing of a breast is something that should warrant even the possibility of revoking CBS’s right to broadcast (yes, I believe the official story that there was supposed to be a bra under there that ripped as well, she was wearing all black leather and most likely sweating, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the bra stuck to the leather cup). Do I believe that it was right for them to plan to have a costume reveal (how positively scandalous)? You know, I don’t even care, pop music is about the glorification of sex that you can’t possibly be having, so I’m ok with it.

I’ve seen and heard some of the fallout from this big flap-over-nothing is that MTV is quietly shifting some of its edgier videos into later slots (they still show videos in the daytime?), ER has decided not to show an old lady’s boob in a show, and NYPD Blue is editing a show to remove a love scene (but butts are still probably ok to show).

Hey, know what? They say shit sometimes on ER. Boy that sure does offend me. Just like an old-ladie's boob would have. You know what else offends me about that show, the fact that they showed Dr. Romano's arm getting chopped off by that helicopter. That show is just a hotbed of offensiveness.

I don’t remember electing the FCC or voting on what is deemed permissible for me to see and not to see. I hate to tell you, but I don’t think most of the kiddies really care about the Grammies or the Oscars that much anyway (both are running on a nice delay this year).