Wednesday March 16, 2005

Howard Wept

What did I tell you? Bush today tapped pasty puritan Kevin Martin as the FCC’s next chairman. I bet the Parents Television Council is going to love this. Actually, no wagering necessary. Here is PTC president Brent Bozell’s statement:

The PTC has strongly supported Kevin Martin as Chairman of the FCC because he is a stalwart leader on the issue of indecency, and we are confident he will make a superb Chairman.

Chairman Martin’s leadership record on the indecency issue shows his commitment to serving the public interest. We look forward to working with him and the full Commission.

Broadcast indecency is no small matter. And the FCC has been delinquent in its stewardship of the public airwaves. Just in the past year, the FCC has deemed topics such as bestiality, masturbation, oral sex, anal sex and pedophilia fit for children to watch on prime time network television. This irresponsibility must stop and with the leadership of Chairman Martin, we are confident it will.

The last part is interesting not just for Bozell’s, um, attention to detail, but for the suggestion that Powell’s FCC has been too easy on indecency. Cue the witch trials and Katie bar the pr0n.

AND ONE OTHER THING: As yet more revelations surface about the administration’s successful efforts to manipulate the electronic media, one might hope the FCC would step-up its role as regulatory watchdog. The commission under Powell is already investigating the Armstrong Williams affair. Don’t expect even feigned vigilance with Martin at the helm, however. As we mentioned before, his role as a partisan fixer dates from his days in Ken Starr’s office through the Florida recount, when he served as deputy general counsel for Bush/Cheney 2000.

Posted by jim at 06:23 PM ||