BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

November 17, 2004

Or just "I"

: Cory Bergman in Lost Remote says:

CBS Chairman Les Moonves at the B&C Hall of Fame party in NY:
"I remember when the magazine was called Broadcasting. Then it was Broadcasting & Cable. Now it's just B&C. I just hope 10 years from now, it's not called C."

Or C&I, as in Cable & Internet. (Quote from this week's B&C magazine).

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Waiting

: I'm waiting to go on Aaron Brown's show and I'm killing time in the very cool Samsung showroom in the new Time Warner center, blogging, getting gadget envy.... Saw Kinsey, most appropriate for the discussion tonight.... See you on the other side....

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TV of the people, by the people, for the people

: Glenn Reynolds takes off on the explosion of TV to say something more fundamental about news:

Journalism isn't a profession, but an activity. And it's an activity that technology is putting within the reach of many more Americans. That's bad news if you're Dan Rather, but it's good news for the rest of us.

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Butt out, Michael Powell!

: Arrrrggghhh.

Michael Powell, chief censor, opens his yap about the lame Desperate Housewives promo on Monday Night Football that -- mind you -- showed nothing more risque than a woman's back. He said:

"First of all, as a legal matter, whether it's a problem is yet to be determined. We only respond to complaints and evaluate them fairly and make a decision," Powell said in an interview with CNBC.

"But I think it's very disappointing. I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," Powell added.

Nowhere in the Constitution or in the charter of the FCC does it say there should be a role for a Chief Federal Entertainment Critic. Who gives a damn if you think it's disappointing? Who gives a damn what you think a corpse would think about this?

This reveals exactly what is wrong here: Powell thinks he has a role in dictating what content -- that is, speech -- should be allowed in this country.

Reread the Constitution, will you, Michael? It's none of your damned business.

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Citizens take over the FCC: A conference (or at least a lunch)

: Here's a conference I'd love to attend:

Citizens take over the FCC. All the constituencies who have problems with the FCC controlling what it shouldn't control come together for a day and leave with a manifesto for change in the agency that oversees, regulates, and holds back the asset that belongs to all of us: spectrum.

Susan Crawford, David Isenberg, Om Malik, Kevin Werbach -- and who else -- know all about the technical and regulatory sides.

I'd take on censorship and free speech.

Susan Crawford put together a great conference on the FCC in New York a few weeks ago. It was way over my head, I'll confess. It didn't deal with the free speech issues. And its aim was different; it created dialogue with the FCC and that's a good thing. David Isenberg has had some great gatherings that I unfortunately missed; they were, as I remember, more about freeing the network. Kevin Werbach has run big conferences in Supernova that explore various issues. So maybe I'm just late to the party.

But I see something that is, I think, simpler and, as a result, more radical:

Let's look at what would happen if we abolished the FCC. What regulation, if anything, would we need instead? How are the FCC and Congress hurting development? We, the people, tell the FCC -- and Congress -- that spectrum is ours and we want to see it developed freely. We take control. We reset the starting point for the discussion.

: Well, fancy that: Just as I finished writing this post, I saw that Steve Verdon at Outside the Beltway also calls for abolishing the FCC (though he concentrates on free speech, not on the spectrum, network, and technology issues) . It's a friggin groundswell. It's a movement.

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Indecent indecency on hold

: The indecent indecency bill won't hit the floor again until January.

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Media on media on media

: I'm supposed to be on Aaron Brown's show on CNN to talk about the backlash to the backlash to Nipplegate.

: I was on Kevin & Bean's show on KROQ this morning. The producer gingerly tried to suggest I shouldn't talk about Howard Stern before the interview. I said I would not agree to that and if you get me, you get Howard. It's not just loyalty to Stern; Stern is at the heart of this free speech story and I always make the point that we must defend Stern to defend the First Amendment (and not wait until the prigs and prudes and bureaucrats go after "Saving Private Ryan"). To their credit, they went ahead. And it was a good discussion. These guys have been on this issue, too. See this page on their site telling you how to make your reasonable voice heard.

: Also was on Paul Harris' show on KMOX yesterday and I really like this guy. He's a blogger and a broadcaster. He put up audio snippets here.

: And I'm supposed to be on the next On The Media.

: Sick of me yet?

Don't answer that.

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Free

: I had stopped reading the Times of London once they started charging. But Andrew Sullivan says that -- thanks in part to his lobbying -- they've taken off the tollbooth and we can once again read one of the world's fine newspapers for free. Thank you, Times.

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Rules, rules, rules

: Steve Rubel points us to a bit of silly PR spinning by the consumer electronics industry, trying to get ahead of whining about cameraphones by putting out a list of rules for camera phone use. As far as I know, nobody asked them. And it's not exactly as if they're enforceable: Break this rule and a flack will bug you.

4. Camera phones should not be used to take photos of individuals without their knowledge and consent.

Well, no, not in a public place. If you see, for example, a cop doing something wrong or a public employee lollygagging, you don't need to go up and ask their permission before taking their picture and distributing it -- anymore than a news photographer would.

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The Daily Stern

: On Thursday at noon, Howard Stern is going to show up at Union Square to hand out something free for Thanksgiving. I'm assuming it's Sirius radios.

: And then he goes to tape Letterman to talk about his future in space. On tomorrow night.

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Americans like sex

: This is getting ridiculous. No, it got ridiculous months ago. Now it's getting stupid. The latest in the prudes' war in America: A supposed flood of complaints to ABC for a joke that showed absolutely nothing naughty before a football game: a star of Desperate Housewives drops her towel and hugs a football player. Flood? I wouldn't believe it. Look at my reporting on the supposed flood that came in complaining about Married by America: a flood of three. But still, the Today show this morning talks about the flood and tsk-tsks when they should be saying: What the F? What's so wrong with that? As Joe Territo says: "Can't we have a little sex with our violence?"

I'm going to start a site that allows all us sane, normal, red-blooded Americans send thank-you notes to the networks -- and the FCC -- every time there's a hint of sex or colorful language on broadcast.

Thank you, ABC, for showing a little naked back. We like pretty women. We like sex. We're male. We're American.

Thank you, Pitt player, for getting so excited you couldn't help yourself and you said the F word. It's nice to see someone excited about something these days. Some for you, Bono.

Thank you, Steven Spielberg, for making soldiers human and letting them speak like real Americans. We need more honesty.

And as for your prudes who are making it your lifes' work complaining and getting stupid ass media to talk about it: Get a life.

: If anybody can find a Torrent of the ABC promo, please put a link in the comments. It couldn't be tamer.

IT'S A JOKE, FOLKS!

We're at risk of outlawing a sense of humor in this country just to satisfy a tiny band of prudes, prigs, and religious nutjobs.

: Tom Biro found the end of it ~~here~~. Tom just sent me a better link here. Watch and judge for yourself.

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