With the resignation of Michael Powell as the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the world of television is now entering a transitory period. Powell is the man who took the flack from the FCC's upped indecency enforcement. It's fair to say his recent announcement thrilled several people but his departure leaves the conflict's future up in the air.
While Powell oversaw the indecency crackdown, it was hardly his preferred area of interest. News reports note that Powell's focus areas were industry deregulation and "advancing digital technologies in telecommunications." Powell only got into the fining business because he got forced due to lax network self-policing. At a symposium last summer, Powell said enforcement is "the most uncomfortable area you'd ever want to work in" and "often, I'm incredibly uneasy about lines we have to draw." He was hardly the crusading zealot his opponents painted him as.
President Bush now gets the honor of filling Powell's slot and he most likely isn't going to appoint a draconian watchdog. The president placed the onus squarely on parents, instead. The president said, "I often told parents who were complaining about content: You're the first line of responsibility. They put an off button on the TV for a reason." Not only that, Bush also praised Powell for appropriately balancing free speech and enforcement.
However, whoever Bush appoints probably won't get a thumbs-up from the television crowd. The industry has shown no sign of pulling back from what brought it into the FCC crosshairs.
CBS's Les Moonves fired the first shot last summer saying CBS would "still encourage our producers to walk the edge and tell edgy stories." More recently, Steven Bochco, the creator of "Hill Street Blues" and the revealing "NYPD Blue," declared that "the medium [television] has become increasingly conservative" due to a "politically charged media landscape."
Now, news reports indicate some Super Bowl ads for Cialis and Degree for Men deodorant pushed the limit. These were still on the card while an even more outrageous ad, showing 60 Minutes-aged essayist Mickey Rooney's rump, was nixed.
The only thing that can occur from all of this is more conflict. Bochco noted that "you're never going to put the genie back in the bottle." He's right; the combination of television not following the rules and the FCC not enforcing them until it was too late have allowed the problem to fester. Case in point was ABC's recent showing of "Saving Private Ryan" uncut. Several affiliates refused to air the film, citing the desire to avoid an FCC fine. Whether or not that was true, they made a salient point: Everyone is now confused as to where the line is.
Thus, it comes to how the FCC, under a new chairman, and the television industry, under the same leadership, will resolve this issue. There can be little doubt that more fines will come along with more carping from the networks. The most likely scenario is television will have to change. The FCC will fine them into compliance, the public's complaints will result in changes or television will self-adjust. Then again, they might stay where they are now and begin a Media Cold War. No matter what, the next few years will go a long way in determining the future of television programming.
Write to Jeff at mannedarena@yahoo.com
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