This diary is a recap of a lead article on
Slashdot.
The Slashdot article is in turn based on a report by Mediaweek.com. The article describes a Congressional hearing where Michael Powell testified shortly after the height of the "oh my God I saw Janet Jackson's nipple" scandal. The take home message of the article is that the Parents Television Council (PTC), a Christian religious fundamentalist group has accounted for nearly all of the complaints received by the FCC.
The implications of this revelation are multifaceted and may bode well for online groups/blogs like DailyKos.
In his testimony Powell described the increase in complaints from 14,000 in 2002 to 240,000 in 2003 as, "a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes."
At the time Powell apparently wasn't aware that 99+% of the complaints were coming from the PTC, but he apparently doesn't care. In a recent op-ed piece in the NYTimes Powell says,
Advocacy groups do generate many complaints, as our critics note, but that's not unusual in today's Internet world. We are very familiar with organized protests when it comes to media issues, but that fact does not minimize the merits of the groups' concerns. Under the law, we must independently evaluate whether a program violates the standard, no matter whether the program in question generates a single complaint or thousands. Under the law, we must independently evaluate whether a program violates the standard, no matter whether the program in question generates a single complaint or thousands.
So according to Powell, they must, by law evaluate complaints regardless of the source. Clearly when the complaints come from the Republican-friendly, fundamentalist PTC, the FCC does indeed take them very seriously.
The question remains whether the FCC will take another advocacy group's complaints as seriously?
Can the progressive blogs neutralize the effects of groups like the PTC? Shall we try? In theory it is quite simple.
Simply go to the Latest Action Alert page at PTC and file an anti-complaint using their handy-dandy complaint form. By doing so, you'll be registered for more "action alerts" and can lather, rinse and repeat as necessary. Just remember to delete their comments in the complaint form and fill them in with your praise of the action alert topic/show.
Today's action alert is on the tawdry nature of the "Life as We Know it" broadcast on ABC. Let the FCC know how much you love the show and think they need more shows like it on the TV.
The point isn't whether you like the show, or even if you have seen the show and don't like it; the point is to neutralize the effects of right-wing, fundamentalis Christian groups like the PTC.