How sad.

The FCC apparently plans to expand its scope to start policing cable TV, satellite radio, and the Internet for immoral content.

The Internet is far to amorphous for even an ambitious government bureaucracy, unless the FCC decides to go after ISPs, which I’d think would spark a calamitous backlash.

Cable and satellite radio are a little different, though like Cato’s Adam Thierer, I’m inclined to think it would be difficult. The FCC is given jurisdiction over broadcast because broadcast spectrum is (allegedly) both publicly owned and “scarce.” Both of those concepts are growing increasingly anachronistic. A clear majority of Americans now get the big four networks via cable lines, not via the public airwaves. And technology has made spectrum exponentially more abundant than it was back when the FCC was initially charged.

The thinking is that the FCC, like all government bodies, will have to change its charge if it wants to remain relevant. To do that, it’ll no longer rely on “scarcity” for justification to regulate, but “pervasiveness.” That is, if content is available to enough people, government is authorized to regulate it. Should Congress authorize that change in mission, and should the courts uphold it (both of which seem unlikely, even in post-Janet-Jackson America), the FCC could put its grubby paws on damned near everything, including the blog you’re reading.

The move was in part spurred by all the decency talk of late, and partly because there are apparently people who think that no one should ever be able to listen to Howard Stern at any time by any means.

I’m not familiar with Sirius, but XM’s adult-content stations are very conspicuously labeled, and are pretty easy for parents to identify and block. Cable hasn’t been as good about that. But cable I guess has always coasted on the assumption that because it traveled on private wires instead of public airwaves, the government couldn’t meddle with it.

Think again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 18th, 2004 at 5:44 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.