‘Don’t invite us to write a rule book on this subject,’ FCC Chmn....

“Don’t invite us to write a rule book on this subject,” FCC Chmn. Powell told public broadcasters in Washington on Tues., when asked about broadcast indecency. That would be a great mistake, he added. Speaking at a Capitol Hill Day event of the Assn. of Public TV Stations (APTS), Powell said the subjectivity and case-specificity of FCC tests allowed for context, tone and other factors in determining indecency in broadcasts. He said he wasn’t sure an FCC rulemaking could provide clarity to the subject and would be the right way to go. He said govt. policy, like business cycles, tended to ebb and flow and correct itself. To let that happen, broadcasters shouldn’t go into “excessive self-censorship. The danger is in self-censorship,” he said. Powell said most of the material that the Commission had held liable isn’t “stuff that is close to the line.” Praising public TV for DTV transition leadership, he said public broadcasters embraced DTV rather than viewing it as a burden. Pointing out that satellite providers had seen the potential of digital and high-definition content before cable, Powell said public TV could leverage its recent voluntary cable carriage agreement to get a similar deal with satellite.