{"id":275,"date":"2006-11-05T02:53:48","date_gmt":"2006-11-05T09:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=275"},"modified":"2006-11-05T02:55:25","modified_gmt":"2006-11-05T09:55:25","slug":"nbc-ceo-challenges-fcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=275","title":{"rendered":"NBC CEO Challenges FCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all the faults, misdeeds, propaganda and monopolistic abuse of Big Media, either hell has frozen over or Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, made a strong case against censorship in a Wall Street Journal editorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, Janet Jackson’s breast proved to be more powerful than any other media organism. It sucked up all the airtime from cable news, talk radio, and other outlets. Its impact extended to Washington, invading the White House, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. The result was a new set of indecency regulations that increased penalties for naughty behavior and put broadcasters on notice that such shenanigans would no longer be tolerated.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wright, in his editorial, pointed out that these new rules were likely to create a “climate of self-censorship,”<\/em> and that’s exactly what happened. Networks recently have declined to air programs like “Saving Private Ryan,”<\/em> and 9\/11 documentaries because they contained language that real people use in real life. He further noted that the evolution of the media marketplace has produced a vastly different landscape than that under which the indecency rules were originally established and he offered up this formula to illustrate the FCC’s anachronistic stance:<\/p>\n

“Do the math: 85% of households have cable and satellite, leaving 15% receiving broadcast TV only. Two-thirds of those households do not have kids under 18. Thus, the FCC appears to be basing its actions on a policy that is relevant to 5% of households.”<\/span><\/p>\n

This effectively spotlights the inane response on the part of the FCC and political puritans to the presence of adult themes on television. Their efforts to sanitize broadcasting so that it never contains content that might be objectionable to anyone over six years of age stifles creativity and speech. It’s a kind of censorship that discriminates against mature ideas and places limits on discussions that affect all Americans, even the young ones. The self-censorship, that stems from broadcasters fearful of stiff fines, affects everything from movies to sitcoms to news magazines. And it holds all viewers hostage to the sensitivities of children and their disingenuous, moralistic protectors.<\/p>\n

I should note that Mr. Wright’s position fits nicely with his industry’s philosophy of eliminating all regulations imposed on it. Perhaps he is just lobbying to keep the government at bay as he does with other regulatory issues like ownership and consolidation. But the bottom line is that, in this case, he’s right, and the over-reaching moralizing of federal agencies must not be permitted to impair the free expression of diverse entertainment and educational programming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For all the faults, misdeeds, propaganda and monopolistic abuse of Big Media, either hell has frozen over or Bob Wright, chairman and CEO of NBC Universal, made a strong case against censorship in a Wall Street Journal editorial. A couple of years ago, Janet Jackson’s breast proved to be more powerful than any other media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-4r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":269,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=269","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":0},"title":"NBC: Shut Up And…Oh Just Shut Up","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/27\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Following the recent announcement of censorship by CNN and NPR when they refused to air ads for the film, \"Death of a President,\" it seems the dawn is not yet here, because it's still getting darker. NBC has now refused to broadcast ads for the Dixie Chicks' new movie, \"Shut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":917,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=917","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":1},"title":"Fox News On O’Reilly vs Olbermann: If You Stop, We’ll Stop","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/19\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Howard Kurtz has a revealing backgrounder on the battle between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann. O'Reilly, who has a superstitious aversion to saying Olbermann's name, has directed his attacks at NBC, calling its chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, \"a \"despicable human being.\" He even blames Immelt for the deaths of American soldiers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":699,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=699","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":2},"title":"Hypocritical Standards Practiced At NBC","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/9\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A few days ago NBC rejected an ad from Freedom's Watch, a pro-war conservative front group for Republican interests. This was the second time that FW submitted an ad that exceeded the standards for broadcast due to its overt political content. In the previous ad they asked viewers to call\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1348","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":3},"title":"GE And FOX Agree To Censor Their News Divisions","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/1\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In a report in the New York Times, the corporate parents of NBC and Fox News were brought together at a summit for CEO's in an attempt to settle a long-simmering feud. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, and Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp, sat down to try to work\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=580","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":4},"title":"Networks Refuse To Air Liberal Ads, Too","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/29\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"John Hinderaker at the Power Line blog is expressing some selective outrage over the alleged refusal of MSNBC and CNBC to air ads by a pro-war shadow press office for the White House. Led by former Bush press secretary, Ari Fleischer, Freedom's Watch is seeking to target congressional members who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39061,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=39061","url_meta":{"origin":275,"position":5},"title":"Sexual Predator Donald Trump Hypocritically Threatens NBC’s ‘License’ Over Weinstein Story","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/4\/2018","format":false,"excerpt":"As his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, is being grilled in the Senate, it appears that Donald Trump is striving mightily to shift attention back to himself. So naturally he's emulating the totalitarian policies of censorship and oppression, especially with regard to the media, that he admires so much. He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=56"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Censorship","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-censorship.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-censorship.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-censorship.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}