SpeakSpeak News

Commenting on Alberto Gonzales’ vow to aggressively prosecute obscenity, Focus on the Family’s “media and sexuality analyst” let out a big Woo-hoo!

“This is really great news,” the analyst said. “But we also need to see prosecution—vigorous prosecution of mainstream pornographers, thousands of which are operating outside the law and are virtually unimpeded.”

Press release here.

David Solomon, who took the helm of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau when it was created in 1999, is leaving quitting.

In MediaWeek.

“A planned Broadway run of the trash TV-inspired musical, Jerry Springer – The Opera, is in doubt after pressure from an evangelical Christian group, the show’s producer said yesterday.”

In the Toronto Globe and Mail

Finally, some common ground. During a debate on CNBC last night, the Parents Television Council and The Center for Creative Voices in the Media agreed that “a la carte” programming is a happy medium for the culture warriors.

Media conglomerates are as opposed as they can get – they like a captive audience. However, now that Congress is fingering cable’s own dirty laundry, maybe Viacom and friends will reconsider.

Parents TV Council Agrees with CCVM That Indecency Regs Should Not Apply to Cable

“[A] former newspaper journalist and editor illustrated the divide with examples from a study conducted in 2004 by the First Amendment Center. Thirty percent of respondents felt the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees – freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and the ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances, he said.”

Americans Divided On First Amendment Rights, Expert Says

The FCC stands to make all kinds of money from network TV – Nikki Kallio, Portland (Maine) Press

Rock ‘n’ `Ryan’: The 2 sides of TV censorship – Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune

Down with the First Amendment – John Nichols, The Nation

Congressional Republicans are jumping on the “Save the Airwaves” bandwagon, vowing to extend the FCC’s indecency regulations to cable networks.

Said Senator Ted Stevens, “We put restrictions on the over-the-air signals,” Stevens said after his address to the National Association of Broadcasters, according to news reports confirmed by his staff. “I think we can put restrictions on cable itself. At least I intend to do my best to push that.”

Networks, in turn, are frantically waving a Supreme Court ruling from 2000 that found Congress guilty of First Amendment violations for trying to protect tots from the Playboy Channel.

Here comes the next battle.

GOP pols target indecency on cable TV , Chicago Sun Tims.
Senator Bids to Extend Indecency Rules to Cable, Washington Post

This beautiful, vitriolic rant ought to get you fired up: A boob’s war on boobs.

Yowza.