Joanna
Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> [Well, 99.8%. Still!]
>
> [Via Sam Smith's Undernews]
>
> ONE GROUP RESPONSIBLE FOR 99.8% OF FCC COMPLAINTS
> http://www.mediaweek.com/mediaweek/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000731656
>
>
> TODD SHIELDS, MEDIA WEEK - In an appearance before Congress in
> February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl moment
> was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael
> Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators. The number of
> indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in
> the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000
> in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years.
> There was, Powell said, "a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage
> about what is being broadcast into their homes." What Powell did not
> reveal - apparently because he was unaware - was the source of the
> complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek,
> nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 - 99.8 percent - were filed by
> the Parents Television Council, an activist group. This year, the
> trend has continued, and perhaps intensified. . .
>
> The prominent role played by the PTC has raised concerns among critics
> of the FCC's crackdown on indecency. "It means that really a tiny
> minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor
> American television and radio," said Jonathan Rintels, president and
> executive director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media, an
> artists' advocacy group.
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
> .
>