Anyone concerned about the preservation of the First Amendment and the
rights it guarantees to free speech and free expression should be worried
about this latest assault on the Constitution. Conservatives who oppose
regulation of talk radio, which most of them like, must be consistent and
oppose the over-regulation of TV content they don't like.
Increasingly, I meet parents of young children who have decided not to have
a TV in the house. Having grown up with TV, they say they experience a
period of "withdrawal," similar to that of breaking free of nicotine or
other addictions. Soon, however, they are communicating more with their
children, reading books to them and enjoying time together. Their lives are
better without TV.
A conservative would call that a market decision. People decide not to
consume a product that is bad for them. As the recent scare over bad pet
food demonstrates, when consumers refuse to buy a tainted product and demand
it be cleaned up, industry responds. When people have had their fill of
really bad television, it will no longer be "Must See TV," but "Must Leave
TV" and I'll bet the industry will clean up its act in response, or face
additional losses in ratings and revenue.
That's better than the government trying to define violence and police
program content and it will give conservatives more leverage, should a
Democrat win the White House next year, to oppose any regulation of talk
radio.