SpeakSpeak News

Utah governor Jon Huntsman has s igned a bill that will require ISPs to provide customers with a way to block sites that the state deems “harmful to minors.” Also, content providers would be required to rate potentially “harmful” content on their websites, or face felony charges.

A similar law was struck down in Pennsylvania last year. Huntsman’s spokesperson says the governor is confident the law will stand.

At CNet.

FCC commish Jonathan Adelstein (a democrat) discussed the FCC’s possible future under new chair Kevin Martin.

“[W]e’ve got to work together here. There’s two Democrats and three Republicans. It’s a small little group and we’ve all got to get along. Frankly, with him, I think we stand a better chance of being able to get along well [than we did with Powell.]”

Adelstein also comments that proposed regulation of cable and satellite networks would be unlikely to survive a constitutional challenge.

In Billboard.

In an interesting case of missing the point completely, Al Sharpton is again scolding the FCC for acting on Janet’s breast but not on violence in and around rap-format radio stations. In addition, he plans to buy stock in said radio stations so that his opinions can be voiced at shareholder meetings.

“I do not understand how the FCC can make a lot of noise around Janet Jackson and that case with Howard Stern but has not said anything about a pattern of shooting and other violence at radio stations,” Sharpton said.

Sharpton did not comment on the Environmental Protection Agency’s appalling silence on the growing problem of noise pollution due to idiot cell phone users.

The Washington Post’s Lisa deMoraes has an analysis of the FCC’s flip-floppery regarding “the Cheney word.”

In its decision Friday, the FCC noted that it doesn’t have the authority to slap CNN with an indecency fine because it’s, hello, a cable network, and the commission does not regulate indecency and profanity on cable and satellite subscription services. Not yet, anyway.

But the FCC added in its statement – as though it were on the payroll of Fox News Channel or something – that viewers who wish to selectively block “unwanted television programming” do have a number of tools available. Options include demanding that a cable operator block programming, or demanding a “lock-box” from their local cable operator to selectively block “unwanted material” themselves, the FCC explained.

Cheerfully ignoring that pesky non-authority thing, the FCC went ahead and determined that Mischer’s use of the Cheney Word was not obscene because CNN’s telecast was not hard-core pornography, and did not appeal to “prurient interest” or lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Interestingly, the FCC did not get around to addressing whether Mischer’s use of the Cheney Word on CNN was “profane” or “indecent.”

Another FCC Ruling You Shouldn’t Swear By, WaPo.