November 2009

A consortium of kids activists and academics has asked the Federal Trade Commission to redefine its definition of programming targeted to kids and teens to be able to collect more information on the marketing by popular TV shows, and to collect it from program distributors as well as food marketers. "The Commission should inquire into industry expenditure and exposure data for marketing that reaches large numbers of children and adolescents even when they are a small percentage of the overall audience," said the Food Marketing To Children Workshop in comments filed at the FTC. Currently, the FTC defines ads targeted to kids as any program for which kids made up at least 30% of the audience, and teen-targeted is any program with at least a 20% adolescent audience. But the group, which was assembled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Berkeley Media Studies Group, points out that the FTC conceded that excludes the top five TV shows watched by adolescents in 2006. It wants the FTC to modify the definition to capture such shows, which include The Simpsons and American Idol. The group also wants the FTC to collect more data, including on targeted marketing, privacy, and to expand the collection to media companies who carry the ads as well as food marketers.

Federal Communications Commission member Meredith Attwell Baker spends most of her time thinking about the Internet — debating questions about whether it should be regulated, how it should be expanded and where the FCC can find the necessary airwaves to do so. Internet companies, public interest groups and telecom carriers have lobbied Attwell heavily during her short tenure at the FCC on the network neutrality rules now under consideration. The rules would require broadband service providers to treat all Internet traffic equally. Commissioner Baker voted to move the rulemaking process forward, but made clear she is worried about the unintended consequences of any regulation. Baker has taken a keen interest in the spectrum shortage the FCC faces. As the former acting administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency within the Commerce Department that oversees the airwaves licensed to federal agencies, Baker thinks the government and companies need to use their spectrum resources more efficiently. Broadcasters may be the source of some of the spectrum necessary to build wireless networks fast enough to provide broadband service, she said. The FCC is also moving forward to make empty broadcast airwaves known as "white spaces" available for unlicensed use, a proposal broadcasters have opposed vehemently.

The Parents Television Council is asking members to complain to the Federal Communications Commission, ABC, Dick Clark Productions and advertisers about the performance of Adam Lambert in the final hour of the American Music Awards. Lambert performed after 10 p.m. East Coast time, so there are no implications for the FCC on that coast. But PTC is encouraging those where the last hour aired at 9-10 p.m. to contact the Commission.

The American Civil Liberties Union is vilified by conservatives as a left-wing lobby disguised as an advocate for free speech for all. And certainly it's true that many supporters of the organization are liberal in their political views. But to its credit, the ACLU often puts its commitment to free expression above those opinions. The latest example is its support for a student group at the University of Nevada that invited Jim Gilchrist, an extreme opponent of illegal immigration, to take part in a panel discussion.