Task Force To Evaluate Indecency Standards

[elektro80]

http://www.mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=62050

Clear Channel Calls On FCC To Convene Industry-Wide Task Force To Evaluate Indecency Standards


Clear Channel today called on the Federal Communications Commission to convene an industry-wide "Local Values Task Force" to develop indecency guidelines that would apply fairly and evenly across all media platforms that distribute content into people's homes - including television, radio, cable and satellite networks.

"We believe the time has come for every sector of the media to join together and develop consistent standards that are in tune with local community values," said Mark Mays, President and COO of Clear Channel Communications. "Our audiences deserve nothing less."

Mays said the Task Force should be convened under the auspices of the FCC, but that the industry has a unique responsibility to step up to the plate and address the problem head on.

"While the government's role is important in this area, there are limits established by the First Amendment to our Constitution," Mays said. "The task of developing guidelines about what is and what is not appropriate is the job of every one of us that delivers content into the home."

Mays added that "indecency is not just a radio problem, a television problem or even a cable problem. It is an industry-wide challenge, and we all must take responsibility to make sure it is addressed on a fair and consistent basis."

Clear Channel suggested the job of the Task Force should be:

* To develop guidelines that carefully balance First Amendment rights with local community values;
* To ensure that all media platforms including television, radio, cable and satellite are treated fairly and equally; and
* To eliminate confusion over what is and is not acceptable behavior over our airwaves and through cable networks into our homes.

"Indecency is not a simple concept. Congress, the FCC, and the courts all have struggled to define it for years," said Mays. "However, we believe all content providers have a responsibility to shield our audiences from indecent programming."

Mays cautioned that by continuing to deal with this issue on a case by case, platform by platform basis, the government is creating an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty.

"All media companies should be held to the same standards," Mays said. "Parents have a right to know what to expect when they change the channel," he said.

Mays said that, as an industry leader, Clear Channel is committed to helping fight this problem and hopes the FCC will bring other leading media companies together to help craft a workable solution.

Mays called for the FCC action as Congress begins scrutiny tomorrow of the agency's enforcement of broadcast indecency violations, and in response to fines against Clear Channel for alleged indecency violations announced by the agency today.

"We work hard every day to entertain, not offend our listeners," said John Hogan, CEO of Clear Channel Radio. "None of us defend or encourage indecent content - it's simply not part of our corporate culture," he said.

Hogan said that Clear Channel employees care deeply about making sure local community values are upheld.

"Our employees live and work in the communities they serve. They work hard to make sure the line is not crossed - but that line can get very fuzzy," Hogan added.

[mosc]

When I think of indecency I think of that movie Elektro80 posted of the helicopter taking out those people and their trucks. Where was that post?

I wouldn't mind them banning "shit" and "fuck" if they played that film everyday just to keep things in perspective.

Funny how those guys don't care for fuck, but they were really loving oral sex a couple of years ago.

I say, fuck Clearchannel. I know one of those words is indecent, and it ain't fuck.

[Cyxeris]

Hell, I adore how fuck is obscene and banworthy, whereas lies, disinformation, and propaganda are not only OK, but seem to be the meat of the medium.

The government has a monopoly on social and constitutional atrocity. I wonder if we could bring a class action anti-trust lawsuit against the government for that.

Cyx

[elektro80]

[mosc]

Oh yes, here: http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-1229.html

[elektro80]

reminds me... is it possible to get an embed tag for mpg and Qt objects?

I mean.. that [right] is excellent.. but could we like get something for video files? Some sort of tag for allround use.. ? Eventually with a few parameters to tweak?

[mosc]

What would the tag do. You can put in URLs. Some html is allowed, and I can easilly expand on what those tags are. Can you suggest something specific?

[elektro80]

I will try to find a good example. I am talking about the embed tag that will show a video on the page with play/stop controls... using the Quicktime code should be just excellent.

Hmm...

Like:

<EMBED WIDTH="480" HEIGHT="288" CONTROLLER="false" TARGET="myself" HREF="http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/6f6922becb3163/1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e8177bed52b320970678e35685ea58ce47/envy-sref.mov" SRC="http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/fe463836e7c745/1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e81788fc5bcb3aad2186f86b/qtstart5a_480x228.mov" BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" BORDER="0" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/indext.html">


sorry for the mess... I will try to make an example later on.. I was just thinking of a simple way for putting video files inside the post.. nut just file links.

[mosc]

I can't get that to work, even on a blank html page. Please try again. I enabled the EMBED tag.

[elektro80]

Ahh ok.. [embed]http://www.thecia.net/users/stewarte/apachehits.mpg[/embed]

[elektro80]

hey.. I will mess with this on sunday..

i am kind of slightly busy now..

[mosc]

OK, whenever you have time. But the embed tag is a regular html tag. You can use some html tags in posts. These tags are i, b, pre, blockquote, img, and now embed. There really is no need for some of them because there are BBCODE tags that do the same thing. It's convenient if you have an html doc you want to paste in a post.

I personally don't have much experience with the embed tag. I suggest you try to get it to work in an external html file. Once you get it the way you like it, try putting it in a post. Check view source to make sure it didn't get mangled by the PHPBB code as it moves to post in and out of the database and reformats the BBCODE tags.

[elektro80]

I will test this later on. I usually write such code in BBEdit or Goliove and then paste it into posts. This works ok in phpnuke. Here it seems that this forum reparses such code and snips off stuff which is in the code. If yu do an edit of the post up there you see it has taken away the tag which is actually in there somewhere.. anyway.. this is not an importtant issue.

[Cyxeris]

Speaking of Clear Channel and their goings on...

Howard Stern Show Taken Off Clear Channel Stations
Wednesday February 25, 6:44 pm ET


SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2004--Clear Channel Radio has suspended the broadcast of Viacom's Howard Stern show, consistent with its Responsible Broadcasting Initiative announced earlier today. After assessing the content of yesterday's Howard Stern show, Clear Channel worked with local market managers to take swift and decisive action.
"Clear Channel drew a line in the sand today with regard to protecting our listeners from indecent content and Howard Stern's show blew right through it," said John Hogan, president and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. "It was vulgar, offensive, and insulting, not just to women and African Americans but to anyone with a sense of common decency. We will not air Howard Stern on Clear Channel stations until we are assured that his show will conform to acceptable standards of responsible broadcasting," Hogan said.

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (NYSE:CCU - News), headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, is a global leader in the media and entertainment industry with radio and television stations, outdoor advertising displays, and live entertainment venues in 65 countries around the world.

See us on the web at www.clearchannel.com



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Clear Channel Communications, Inc., San Antonio
Lisa Dollinger, 210-822-2828
LisaDollinger@clearchannel.com
or
Clear Channel Communications, Inc., Washington
Andrew Levin, 202-289-3230
AndyLevin@clearchannel.com

[paul e.]

heh

for clear channel

[play]

All I gotta say is thank fuckin' god for the motherfuckin' internet, you bitches ::)

What I'd like to know is when the standards for censoring violence are going to be balanced with those of sex. Somehow realistic decapitation is OK on television, or peope eating shit for money, but there's something horribly evil about nipples.

[Cyxeris]

What needs to happen is they need to start censoring our foreign policy. And they need to censor the bills that are passed in the legislature. And they can censor this anti-marriage amendment. And they can censor the death penalty, and censor prison rape, and censor corporations' abilities to move overseas and start sweatshops, and while they're at it, they can censor lies! Yeah! What a concept! The FCC can crack down on lies being broadcast, be they in political ads, in anti-drug propaganda, in state of the union addresses, in the Department of Treasury documentary "Reefer Madness." Hell, even the ten commandments forbid lying. I suppose the FCC and the federal government adhere to a lesser standard of decency.

But that goes without saying, doesnt it.

Cyx

[play]

'The Federal Truth Commission'?

*shudders* frightening.

[Cyxeris]

No, that's what they're working on. The Ministry of Truth, Orwell style. Fiction has a tendancy to be little more than displaced reality.

Cyx