FCC Gets an F

I think this quote from the new FCC Chairman, Kevin J Martin is definitive proof that the agency has become so utterly worthless that it no longer has any right to exist.

“This order involves a television program that the majority admits ‘contains references of a sexual nature that were broadcast at a time of day when children were likely to be in the audience,’ ” he wrote in that opinion. “Yet the majority concludes that the program, in which a prostitute is hired to sexually arouse a horse by removing her blouse and to ‘extract’ semen from the horse, is not indecent because the prostitute is ‘never seen actually touching’ the horse. Despite my colleagues’ assurance that there appeared to be a safe distance between the prostitute and the horse, I remain uncomfortable. I respectfully dissent.”

Update: For anyone interested in a more serious take on problems with spectrum regulation, read this article.

A Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee was formed in Washington, and it had one key recommendation: “Public safety agencies will not be able to adequately discharge their obligations to protect life and property” if they don’t get more frequencies within five years. The report was released on September 11, 1996.

And we all know what happened exactly five years later, when public safety agencies still did not have sufficient spectrum for their emergency radio communications network.

2 thoughts on “FCC Gets an F”

  1. Makes me wonder what show they were watching… At any rate, it does show that the FCC regulations and guidelines are all based around a subjective case-by-case ruling system. They try to inject reason into their arguments, but it’s hard to do that when you’re talking about hookers and horse semen. I personally want to know why networks have started allowing “ass” and “asshole,” but are all bleeping “goddamn.” And they’re bleeping “god” out of it…. so you end up with ::bleep::damn. It always begs the question… what the fuck?

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