Every night around 11 o'clock my wife reluctantly relinquishes the remote
control so that I can select the local newscast we will watch. The scene is
familiar to millions of people for whom the TV remote can sometimes cause
marital friction and spark a battle for the power to determine what others
watch.
On Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to discuss whether
there is too much violence on cable and satellite TV and what to do about
it. The issue of TV violence is the baby of Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the
Federal Communications Commission, who was scheduled to testify, but
canceled at the last minute for family reasons. Martin thinks there is too
much violence on subscription TV. The hearings went ahead without him as
others testified for and against his proposal for federal regulation, which
would make the point of the remote moot, as consumers could no longer
control their entertainment choices.
In testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, an FCC representative was
joined by at least one other commission member, one network executive and an
advocacy group representative in support of legislation that would allow
cable and satellite TV subscribers to select their programs "a la carte,"
meaning consumers could choose the networks they want to come into their
homes and reject others. This cafeteria approach might sound good at first
glance, but suppose someone didn't want to see the violence in Fox TV's
"24," but did wish to see the violence of NFL football? Since Fox carries
both, consumers who rejected Fox because of "24," would not be able to watch
NFL football.
Not only is this a bad business model in that cable and satellite TV make
money by telling advertisers they can reach a certain number of homes, it
also takes away the privileges and responsibilities of individuals to make
these decisions. I don't want - and you shouldn't either - any government
official or bureaucrat deciding which cable shows are good for me, and which
ones are not.
Much of this "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you" attitude
derives from the supposed negative impact such programs have on children,
but Census figures show that only one-third of American households have
children 18 or under. Chairman Martin favors regulating all households to
accommodate this relatively small percentage.