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Let the Market Decide

Once-Conservative Adelphia is adding hard-core porn to its cable lineup in what, I think, is the best example of “let the market decide” there could be.

“People want it, so we are trying to provide it,” Adelphia spokeswoman Erica Stull said. “The more Xs, the more popular.”

Amen. Adults want adult entertainment and they should be allowed to have it if they do.

Despite an outcry among some religious organizations, parent groups and political figures over the coarsening content coming into homes, the “indecency” backlash could lead to even more graphic programming on subscription services

Frankly, I’m quite tired of religious organizations, parent groups, and the likes of them trying to regulate every single thing that adults indulge themselves in.

Most of the television-related complaints come from L. Brent Bozell’s Parents Television Council. And while I think the Media Research Center does an important job, I think the PTC needs to be disbanded and stop interfering in the entertainment that adults can partake in.

Mediaweek, a weekly trade publication for broadcasters of television and radio programming had this to say in its December 6, 2004 issue:

What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners’ statements.)

I only bring this up because I want to prepare you for the kind of opposition that Adelphia’s move is likely to receive. As you hear numerous times in the lamestream media how the public is outraged over some anal sex and a few blowjobs, think about the pattern we’re talking about here and how historically the average person just doesn’t care.

The case against Adelphia is particularly weak considering that cable is a pay service with parental blocking built into it. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it.

But, in my estimation, Adelphia is going to get screwed (no pun intended) because there is a cottage industry in this country; one that is always waiting for that very moment to pounce on something and call it the Soddom and Gamorrah of the modern era.

Go Adelphia, and sell all the smut you want! Let the people eat…

Oh forget it. I’m not going there :wink:

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February 2nd, 2005 | Category: In The News
  • Dave
    The PTC doesn't stop there. Among other things, they have contacted advertisers of shows that they object to. The PTC isn't always nice in trying to get the advertiser to remove their sponsorship of that show.
  • I hear your point. It's gotta be of some comfort to us, though, that the FCC did their part in rejecting most of the complaints.

    I just see some value in a private consumer group like them in providing an alternative point of view to the public and actually having some influence.
  • The "alternative media" is all well and good. I just think people need to get the whole story in the first place in order to process information.

    Not to beat a dead horse, but take FCC complaints. If you didn't read it by chance somewhere else would you know that the "enormous rise" in complaints last year was due to one group of people actively soliciting FCC complaints?

    That's my only point, really.
  • I guess I'm just a little more optimistic about the general populous's ability to process information given to them.

    As demonstrated by the blogosphere and other alternative media's affect on the impact of the Old Media, even though not all information dissiminated may be accurate, more information is better than none at all. People generally figure out what is bullshit for themselves.
  • I'm all for people seeing shit on television and complaining about it. What I'm not for is for organizations basically handing out the equivalent of digital leaflets and telling people "Here! Be offended at this!"

    It's one thing if people tuned in and saw stuff and didn't like it. But considering that 98.8% of the complaints the FCC gets are from one group of people, I'd have to say that most people aren't getting offended.

    And the idea of people complaining about something they didn't even see on TV just infuriates me. Consumer groups are great, but agenda-driven morality police make me sick. That's all the PTC really is.

    And as I've said, I think Bozell does yoeman's work over at the MRC. But let's not kid ourselves about the PTC.
  • As private consumers, isn't it up to them to decide how they measure the quality and value of what they consume - regardless of how unscientific the method of measurement is?

    Vinny, you know I'm with you when it comes to the FCC and Congress over-regulating decency. But consumer watchdog groups like PTC are great tools for consumers to provide enough pressure on business to reduce the need for government regulation.
  • They aren't government. I understand that.

    But they're not just a bunch of folks being pissed about stuff. They actively solicit television clips, play them for people who haven't seen them, and then urge people to write to the FCC and tell the FCC how offended they are.

    Now, I'm no rocket scientist, but how can you geniuinely be offended by something you never saw?

    They don't care if you're offended or not, they want volume, and they want everything that offends them off television.
  • But they're not government. This lies at the core of what our republic was founded on. They are private citizens redressing greivance. You or I might not agree with their greivances, but it's well within their right and their obligation as Americans to do so.
  • The PTC is an organization whose sole purpose is to police television. They find something objectable and instead of just letting other members know not to watch it, they try to get it yanked off the air.

    I have no joy for hypocrites who hide behind protecting the children in order to zip past the first amendment.

    Period.

    Bozell's group isn't interested in helping other consumers make a choice; they're interested in policing television for everyone and that's bullshit. If they were only interested in telling people about choices and making educated decisions, they wouldn't be accounting for 98.8% of the complaints the FCC receives, and they wouldn't be airing the clips they find so offensive on their site so that people who haven't even seen the show could play along and be offended too.

    It's bullshit and I don't like it.
  • I'm with you on the support for Adelphia's offering the add-on pay channel to paying adults.

    But the PTC is not the government. They are a consumer-based watchdog group that assists consumers in making sound decisions in purchasing goods and products.

    The FCC regulating this would have been a different and much more disturbing story. The PTC expressing its analysis and opinion to the public helps keep consumer pressure rather than government regulatory pressure on the entertainment business. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing.
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