CONTENT
Update: House Panel Agrees on Indecency Bill
UPN Show Is Called Insensitive to Amish
TELEPHONY
SBC Offers to Settle Network Leasing Issue
CONTENT
UPDATE: HOUSE PANEL AGREES ON INDECENCY BILL
By a vote of 48-1, the House Commerce Committee passed H.R. 3717, a bill
that would now increase maximum fines for indecent broadcast content to
$500,000. The bill was amended by the Committee yesterday to include one
controversial provision would require the Federal Communications Commission
to consider revoking the license of any broadcaster that violates indecency
rules three or more times. The bill does not include a cap for large
station group owners, does not apply to cable or satellite operators, but
will apply to individual broadcasters and performers. The FCC will have 180
days to review indecency violations. "I am fed up with the smut and raw sex
that has polluted the public airwaves," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who
sponsored the bill. "It seems that some broadcasters and shock jocks are
engaged in a 'how low can you go?' mentality."
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Neil Roland (Bloomberg)]
Markup of H.R. 3717, the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004
See a link to the bill and the amendment at the URL below.
[SOURCE: House of Representatives]
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Markups/03032004markup1225.htm
Trade publication Broadcasting & Cable has lots of coverage for the
hearing, see the following links.
* FCC Told To Open Violence Inquiry; Brownback Wants Viacom Explanation
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA401066?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
* Indecency Hearing Provides Platform for Concentration Critics
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA388231?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
* Stations Won't Have to Pay for Networks' Sins
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA388230?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
* NAB Opposes Indecency Bill
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA388229?display=Breaking+News
http://www.nab.org/Newsroom/PressRel/statements/S0504.htm
(requires subscription)
* Cable Ratings Could Be on the Way
[SOURCE FOR ALL: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR FOR ALL: John Eggerton]
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA388227?display=Breaking+News
(requires subscription)
CHILL MEDIA CONSOLIDATION TO FIGHT INDECENCY, NOT FREE EXPRESSION
Creative artists share the public's concerns about indecency on the
airwaves. However, media executives, eager to placate the angry politicians
and FCC Commissioners who oversee them, are bluntly excising legitimate
artistic content, chilling free expression. This heavy-handed censorship
does not address the root cause of indecent content and only results in
more of the homogenization of broadcast network programming already
bemoaned by those in and out of the entertainment industry. Instead,
lawmakers regulators, media executives, and the public must address the
link between indecent content and the rapid consolidation of America's
broadcast media.
[SOURCE: Center for Creative Voices in Media Press Release March 1]
http://www.creativevoices.us/php-bin/news/showArticle.php?id=75&PHPSESSI...
UPN SHOW IS CALLED INSENSITIVE TO AMISH
Viacom's UPN broadcast network plans a reality series called "Amish in the
City" in which cameras follow Amish teenagers in the big city for the first
time. UPN's sister network, CBS had planned "The Real Beverly Hillbillies"
in which a real rural, lower-middle-class family would be moved into a
luxurious Beverly Hills house. That show was nixed after an organized
protest by rural groups. "We couldn't do the 'Beverly Hillbillies,''"
Leslie Moonves, the CBS chairman, who also oversees UPN, told television
critics and reporters in January. But the Amish, he joked, "don't have
quite as good a lobbying effort." No so fast, Les. The Center for Rural
Strategies, a nonprofit organization based in Whitesburg (KY) and headed by
former documentary filmmaker Dee Davis, organized the efforts to thwart
production of "The Real Beverly Hillbillies" and is now organizing an even
stronger effort to kill "Amish in the City" before it becomes reality.
"Once again Viacom has created a reality show where rural people were going
to be these curios," Mr. Davis said. "Viacom's got plenty of ways to make
money without ridiculing rural people."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Bernard Weinraub]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/arts/television/04AMIS.html
(requires registration)
TELEPHONY
SBC OFFERS TO SETTLE LEASING ISSUE
Local phone giant SBC sent a letter to 2,500 rival phone service providers
asking them to negotiate leases for network equipment independent of
federal and state regulators. "We're trying to bring a little stability to
this thing and stop all this chaos, which is wrecking an industry," said
Edward E. Whitacre Jr., chairman of SBC, which operates in 13 states in the
West and Southwest. He said in a telephone interview that the
telecommunications industry has been dealing with courts and regulators for
six or seven years and that, "it's time we called a halt to all of this and
come up with an agreement." One of SBC's biggest rivals, AT&T, had a poetic
reply: "The Bells are still in control over the bottleneck facility and
SBC's olive branch is just stems with thorns that will bleed competitors dry."
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Matt Richtel]
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/technology/04bell.html
(requires registration)
See Also:
VICTORY WILL BE SHORT-LIVED
Glenn Bischoff thinks the Bells' recent court victory will be overturned by
the Supreme Court. "The Supreme Court's attitude all along has been that
the Telecom Act is a complicated and difficult piece of legislation and
that the FCC is the expert body," said John Roberts, dean emeritus and
professor of telecommunications law at Chicago's DePaul University. "Unless
the FCC does something horrible, it is going to defer to the commission's
judgment." So the battle continues, for at least another year, maybe more.
Which is good for telecom lawyers but bad for an industry that is still
struggling to recover from the economic malaise that has burdened it for
nearly three years.
[SOURCE: Telephony Online, AUTHOR: Glenn Bischoff (Guest Commentator)
gbischoff( at )primediabusiness.com]
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