Fake Moral Outrage: "Freeper"Tactics at play

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson�s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators. The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years.

That's because America was strongly moving to the Right of Center, after taking GW Bush to the promised land, tight?

WRONG!

What Powell did not reveal was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003�99.8 percent�were filed by the Parents Television Council

Media Week

THe "If you've done nothing wrong" argument doesn't hold water:

"Lara Mahaney, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based group. Mahaney said the issue should not be the source of complaints, but whether programming violates federal law prohibiting the broadcast of indecent matter when children are likely to be watching. �Why does it matter how the complaints come?� Mahaney said. �If the networks haven�t done anything illegal, if they haven�t done anything indecent, why do they care what we say?�

Here's why:

In such a system, even the number of complaints becomes an object of contention. For example, the agency on Oct. 12, in proposing fines of nearly $1.2 million against Fox Broadcasting and its affiliates, said it received 159 complaints against Married by America, which featured strippers partly obscured by pixilation.

But when asked, the FCC�s Enforcement Bureau said it could find only 90 complaints from 23 individuals. (The smaller total was first reported by Internet-based TV writer Jeff Jarvis; Mediaweek independently obtained the Enforcement Bureau�s calculation.)

And Fox, in a filing last Friday, told the FCC that it should rescind the proposed fines, in part because the low number of complaints fell far short of indicating that community standards had been violated.

�All but four of the complaints were identical�and only one complainant professed even to have watched the program,� Fox said. It said the network and its stations had received 34 comments, �a miniscule total for a show that had a national audience of 5.1 million households.�


So, I ask you this: Catering to the Moral Majority is a vote getter, but are you happy with the product afterwards?

Such is the nature of these groups. Willing to do whatever it takes, even if it violates any morals they claim to uphold, in order to force their agenda upon others...