PTC Wants To Pin Republican FCC Nominees Down On Indecency Regulation
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 6/1/2009 5:20:20 PM
On reports that Senate Republicans might be close to picking their nominees for FCC commissioner, the Parents Television Council is asking members of the Senate Commerce Committee to pin the nominees down on their stands on indecency regulation.
"Commissioner [Robert] McDowell has shown little leadership on decency matters," said PTC President Tim Winter, "and both [Mignon] Clyburn and [Meredith Attwell Baker] have no track records on these issues. Though [Julius] Genachowski sits on the board of Common Sense Media, we still know very little about his intent to enforce decency standards, though we remain hopeful that he understands the importance of the issue."
"We prefer nominees that have a demonstrable track records on these issues already," said Dan Isett, director of public policy for PTC.
Isett conceded that McDowell has cast "good votes" on all the unanimous FCC decisions that have come out of the commission since he has been there, but said that given his choice, he would rather have someone who took more of a "leadership role on decency," citing former Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate as more the mold PTC was looking for."
Isett said PTC's concern is that the FCC could "revert back" to the days before FCC chairman Michael Powell, when he averred that the FCC essentially "did nothing" about indecency. He said that, not only would they be abdicating their responsibility to uphold the law, but "would risk handcuffing future FCCs."
