The WSJ wonders why the FCC hasn't issued a single fine this year.
WSJ.com - Why Indecency, Once Hot at FCC, Cooled($)
The Federal Communications Commission levied a record $7.9 million in indecency-related fines last year, raising concerns among media companies that regulators were embracing a nanny-like approach to enforcing decency standards. Programming changes followed, among them the departure of shock-jock Howard Stern to the FCC-free world of satellite radio, taking millions of advertising dollars with him.
Well, that's one reason. Making businesses unhappy is never good policy for politicians who depend on campaign contributions. Politicians give (upper-level) bureaucrats jobs, hence bureaucrats usually strive to please their bosses.
The FCC has received more than 189,000 indecency complaints against radio and television programs through the end of September, but it hasn't issued any fines. The inaction is puzzling to FCC watchers, who expected enforcement activity to ratchet up under Kevin Martin, the new FCC chairman and an outspoken supporter of increasing indecency fines and holding broadcasters more accountable.
but here is another reason: the FCC is blatantly inflating the number of complaints.
Some people question whether the FCC's count of complaints is accurate, or whether a change in methodology for tallying complaints has inflated the numbers. Since 2003, the FCC has counted complaints generated as the result of mass mailings by interest groups such as the Parents Television Council as individual complaints; previously, it grouped them together as one. That helps explain the more than tenfold increase in complaints in 2003 to 166,683 compared with 13,922 in 2002. A record 1.4 million complaints were filed last year, many of them were about Ms. Jackson's breast-flashing Super Bowl appearance.Since early 2004, the FCC has been noting in quarterly reports that its indecency figures “may also include duplicate complaints or contacts that subsequently are determined insufficient to constitute actionable complaints.” It isn't clear how many complaints are counted more than once.
Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a think tank funded by telecommunications, technology and media companies, recently published a study of the FCC's complaint process that took note of the double-counting and suggested the numbers have been deliberately inflated for political purposes. They are routinely used in media reports and cited as a reason why more regulation and higher fines are needed.
“The numbers are driving the process,” Mr. Thierer says. “If they're becoming the news, they better be accurate.”
FCC officials acknowledge that indecency complaints are more likely to be double-counted than other types of complaints to the FCC, because they are routed to several different offices within the agency. In his statement, Mr. Martin said the FCC “does its best to cross reference complaints and eliminate any duplication.”
Just peachy. Actually, every complaint to the FCC sent from Bozell (L. Brent Bozell, president of the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that encourages members to use its Web site to send complaints to the FCC.) should be automatically trashed.
As Eric Idle sang, the FCC are all fucks (mp3 here)
Oh, and Steve Earle sings, on his great album,
I used to listen to the radio
And I don’t guess they’re listenin’ to me no more
They talk too much but that’s okay
I don’t understand a single word they say
Piss and moan about the immigrants
But don’t say nothin’ about the president
A democracy don’t work that way
I can say anything I wanna saySo fuck the FCC
Tags: corruption, /FCC, /media
Great work!
[yeah, whatever, I hope this is ironic]