NAB chairman blasts indecency crackdown

Billboard Radio:

Are federal policy makers “on the verge of killing free-over-the-air broadcasting with rules that stifle our ability to compete in today’s multi-channel universe?” That’s one of a series of hard-hitting questions posed by Phil Lombardo, joint board chairman of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, during a speech on broadcast indecency Thursday at The Media Institute in Washington, D.C.

In the lobbying group’s strongest statement yet on the issue, Lombardo called the government’s “crackdown on controversial and cutting edged programming” the biggest concern among broadcasters during the past 50 years. “Inconsistent” indecency enforcement has resulted in “tremendous uncertainty” and “unprecedented anxiety at every level of our business,” Lombardo said.

In a stinging indictment of the Federal Communications Commission, Lombardo accused the agency of propagating an indecency disconnect. “At the same time that indecency regulations are being ratcheted up against local broadcasters, cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner are raking in hundreds of millions a year from pay-per-view, hard core pornography.” ...

he Supreme Court’s landmark 1978 Pacifica indecency ruling was predicated on broadcasting’s “pervasive nature, Lombardo reminded. “Yet despite all evidence suggesting that broadcasters are less pervasive today – thereby warranting a need for less regulation of speech -- policymakers are even more strictly regulating free, over-the-air stations with more content regulation.”

Listeners and viewers suffer the most from that regulation, Lombardo argued, with the Veteran’s Day decision by ABC affiliates in 66 cities not to air Saving Private Ryan (out of fear of FCC reprisals) as one of the more glaring examples. ...