LAC News
FCC Endorses Cable Choice
By Amelia Wigton
December 2005

For the first time ever, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin  endorsed cable choice and family-friendly packaging, which would enable families to purchase only the cable stations they choose. The announcement occurred in an “Open Forum on Decency” in the Senate on November 29.  

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) chaired the event,  which included a string of testimonies from top executives of leading cable, network television, radio and various other media corporations who have a vested interest in the issues of decency and cable choice.

Chairman Martin reiterated the problem of widespread indecency on network and cable television: “At the FCC, we used to receive indecency complaints by the hundreds; now they come in by the hundreds of thousands.  Clearly, consumers – and particularly parents – are concerned and increasingly frustrated.”

The announcement reverses  the FCC’s stance on cable choice from last year, when former Chairman Michael Powell asserted that a la carte programming would hurt the cable industry.  Chairman Martin rebuffed that idea during the forum, and said that cable choice would be good for consumers. Concerned Women for America (CWA) has worked with Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) to promote this issue, and has held press conferences and produced numerous publications to keep the public informed on cable choice.

CWA is encouraged that the forum will bring more attention to the issue.

Much of the forum discussed problems and solutions regarding excessive

indecency on television and what Congress should or should not do about it.  Other members of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation including Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-West Virginia), joined Sen. Stevens.  Sen. Inouye noted that lawmakers are unsure of what to do, but he also said that they were going “to act.” 

CWA’s Director of Government Relations, Lanier Swann, who attended the forum, said: “In America’s customer-driven market, cable companies should do more to give customers what they want.  Remarkable indecency on television has greatly escalated, and parents should not have to pay to have material that they consider offensive come into their homes. 

“While technological advances have allowed parents to block certain channels, it makes little sense for them to have to pay for channels that they do not want,” Swann said. “We wholeheartedly support legislation that will help parents protect their children from ever-worsening content on television.”

Also mentioned at the hearing was pending legislation proposed by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), which would dramatically increase FCC fines for decency violations on television.  Sen. Stevens said he considers The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 (S. 193) “fine legislation.”  It currently has 27 co-sponsors and was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.  CWA is working for passage of this bill.

To read an article on cable choice by CWA founder and chairman Beverly LaHaye, published in The Washington Times, click here.