Broadcast Decency Regulations Coming to Cable
Jon E. Dougherty, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, May. 4, 2004
If there was a one-two punch that finally pushed regulators of the airways over the edge, it was singer/entertainer Janet Jackson and radio shock jock Howard Stern. Because of their antics, say critics, the Federal Communications Commission finally got serious about enforcing on-air decency rules.
In Jackson's case, her "wardrobe malfunction" during January's Super Bowl halftime show — in which fellow entertainer Justin Timberlake appeared to rip part of her costume, exposing her right breast, complete with pasty — sparked outrage from FCC chief Michael Powell. He called it "a classless, crass and deplorable stunt."
As for Stern, his demise has been more long-term. The Clear Channel radio network yanked him from six of their stations after the FCC fined the company $495,000 for 18 different violations of decency rules during a number of his programs. The FCC acted after listeners complained.
Cable In the Sights
Now, the cable TV industry may be next.
For years — since the introduction of the first cable channels — that portion of the entertainment industry has managed to escape FCC control. And, as cable TV grew, the programming became ever more edgy, more racy, more explicit.
But according to an April 26 report in Broadcasting & Cable magazine, an industry publication, those days are over. "Now Congress, the FCC, and advocacy groups are plotting a new assault on the cable industry," B & C reported.
And networks like MTV, HBO and Showtime, Comedy Central and FX fear the free ride may soon be over.
Critics of broadcast filth include the FCC's Powell, as well as several lawmakers like House Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and advocacy groups like the Parents Television Council. They see no difference between network and cable broadcasting, and they want new, tough standards for both.
"I don't believe the First Amendment should change channels when it goes from channel 7 to channel 107," Powell told an industry audience last month at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.
Having an Effect
Talk of new rules has already had some effect, B & C reported. For example, some cable programmers have pushed risqué shows back to later time slots, when more adults and less children are usually watching.
In addition, some cable networks are canceling plans to produce new risqué programs.
The industry mag said many cable network execs chose not to be identified by name in the report because they feared retaliation from overzealous regulators.
"If it's really edgy stuff," one veteran producer for a number of cable networks told B & C, "a lot of networks are saying, 'Let's wait until January,' the hope being that we get out of this election year and a lot of this nonsense goes away."
The producer added, "Stuff is getting cut that nobody would have blinked twice at before. On VH-1 and MTV, they're saying take that out, it's too much of the jiggling boobies."
MTV denied to the magazine it was asking producers to tone material down.
But over at HBO, said one insider, they're worried: "Everybody is concerned. The documentary that's in the works about the making of [the pornographic movie] 'Deep Throat' is making a lot of people nervous. Nobody was thinking twice about coming under siege for that kind of stuff before."
And there's more concern brewing about current HBO programming. Deadwood, a new hour-long program featuring characters in the Black Hills town, circa 1876, has some of the grit of the Old West — and plenty of raunchy language as well.
USA Today says producers of Deadwood claim it is very representative of life in an Old West gold-mining town. But others aren't so sure.
"I have a prejudice against the Deadwood thing because, to make it that real, and bring in the swearing, I think that's really messing with the genre," David Canary, who played ranch hand Candy on the '60s Western Bonanza, told the newspaper.
He says he hasn't seen Deadwood, and neither has actor Dennis Weaver, now host of cable's Starz Western Channel and the man who played Deputy Chester Goode from 1955 to 1964 on Gunsmoke.
Bad Idea
While a number of Americans, lawmakers and some advocacy groups want new stricter content rules for cable, not everyone — especially industry folks — think changes are a good idea.
In fact many of them disagree for reasons Congress and the nation's courts have okayed in the past.
First, cable subscribers voluntarily choose to pay for content and can, at any time, either cancel their subscriptions or block out any cable channels and programming they find offensive.
Secondly, the government is entitled to limit its free-speech restrictions to the fewest possible.
Because of these factors, the rules for cable TV are different, even though most major cable networks are owned by broadcasters.
Regulating programs on cable "is a bonkers idea," said Michael Jackson, chairman of Universal Television, which owns the USA Network and the Sci Fi Channel. "Broadcast and cable live by different rules. As cable has pushed the envelope, the audience has responded, enthusiastically."
Still...
Nevertheless, Barton last month said unless cable channels voluntarily clean up their programming, he'll introduce a bill aimed at forcing them to clean up by making them adhere to the same standards as broadcasters.
He told an audience at an NAB breakfast cable will get one chance to police itself but, if past is prologue, "they will fail."
"If I can see it on my TV and my grandson can click and watch a channel," Barton told the crowd, "whether it's satellite, over-the-air, or cable, the same rules in terms of decency should apply."
In the Senate, John Breaux, D-La., fell one vote short of amending a broadcast indecency bill that would regulate cable as over-the-air content. It was a close call that has some insiders and analysts predicting the bill will come up again—and maybe even pass if the full Senate gets to vote on it.
"Right now, our legislation says, if the Janet Jackson incident happened on Monday Night Football, then there will be a fine; if it happens Sunday night on ESPN, then nothing happens because that's on cable," Breaux said.
Currently there are two bills moving through Congress that would restrict indecency and violence, B & C reported.
Creativity Chill
Industry people say the biggest threat of all is to creativity. Already writers are holding back, they complain.
Carl Gottlieb, vice president of the Writers Guild of America, said, "The most insidious thing about even pending legislation is, it makes writers who are supposed to be unfettered minds start to do self-censorship."
The changes being discussed would dramatically alter content on cable channels, no question. And some execs believe that, at a minimum, a long fight over the issue is coming.
"Six months ago I never would have dreamed we would be here," one programming chief said.