Friday January 20, 2006

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Brent Bozell

The verdict was clear after yesterday’s decency hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. The so-called “family tiers” cable and satellite companies are proposing in order to stave off more aggressive decency legislation would be just great if they included more sports. “I don’t know why a family has to choose between protecting their children” and watching sports, says Sen. Frank Lautenberg. “I think you’ll find the marketplace is going to want [sports channels],” concurs Sen. George Allen.

Both gentlemen seem to be under the impression that family tiers are actually about what the marketplace wants, rather than seeing that such tiers are only meant to be the second most disruptive way to keep children from witnessing MTV. That this is a matter for the government to decide is itself ridiculous. There is no right to cable—let alone to kid-friendly cable plus ESPN—and if Brent Bozell and company don’t like what they see, they should stick to broadcast TV, where the government at least has some claim to jurisdiction.

Which brings me to the most disruptive way to keep children from watching MTV: a la carte programming. Bozell continued to beat this drum at yesterday’s hearing, and FCC chairman Kevin Martin has expressed support, despite the fact that the commission—under Michael Powell—found that it would be cost-prohibitive to let subscribers choose individual channels they would like to receive. Bundling basic channels together keeps costs down, but Bozell doesn’t like paying for channels he finds offensive. The a la carte debate has created some strange bedfellows, to be sure. Howard Stern, like Bozell, supports it. Both cable companies and the Christian Coalition oppose it.

I say we give Bozell what he wants.

Allowing consumers to choose just the channels they want will have a two-fold effect. On the one hand, a lot of channels won’t pull their own weight and will disappear—and it probably won’t be the ones on Bozell’s hit list. Religious stations will go out of business, which is why the Christian Coalition opposes the plan. MTV will, no doubt, survive.

Meanwhile, a la carte will completely wreck the business model of today’s media giants. This is also, of course, why a la carte will never be adopted—Republicans can’t sacrifice that much corporate support to the fringes—but if it were, it would hasten the downfall of mainstream media and the rise of consumer control, as Jeff Jarvis has described. Sticking it to Bozell, the Christian Coalition, and corporate monopolists all at the same time? What’s not to like? Bozell needs all the support we can give him.

Posted by jim at 02:53 AM ||