Al Sharpton was on CNN again today talking about FCC needing to "Regulate Airwaves."

[KoKo]

They were going at him on CNN about why he's just stepping up to comment about "Rapster" use of what Imus is in trouble for and he said "I've been at this for two years on my show." I even went to the FCC and complained about it.

Sharpton is framing the issue of "hate speech" on our airwaves. It's something many in the black community has been working on for awhile and it crosses the color line and includes the sterotyping of our young females and males in our society in ways that lead to exploitation.

This is an issue that many of the Conservative Christians can be brought into ...if it's framed correctly.

I'm glad to see this coming up because it also could give more push to get the Fairness Doctrine (revised and modernized) back into play. Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed a bill to bring back "FD" and he's going to need alot of "push" to get it through.

I know many here don't think "FD" should be brought back. But some modernization of the original might bring alot of folks on board. If it's done in the correct way. "FD" also needs to cover Cable. It might mean that those of us who pay for cable should be able to have choice in what we want to see rather than having to take stuff we don't. If you want porn or semi-porn and shows that use language that you don't find offensive but others do...then you can buy access to that...but folks who don't shouldn't be forced to take it in their tiered cable package.

Reinstating "FD" would also give us much more diversity by allowing all those who aren't free to produce more creative programming an opportunity to do so. Having "mandated" equal time means that corporate controlled RW Repug programming and news would have to compete with mainstream and even lefty leaning programming. This would help to loosen the gags that have kept "REAL NEWS" off the airwaves. It could mean a CREATIVE EXPLOSION in the entertainment world by opening doors to those who have been shut out for the last couple of decades.

[rinsd]

1. Sorry but any plan that gives the FCC say over cable is dead to me.

"It might mean that those of us who pay for cable should be able to have choice in what we want to see rather than having to take stuff we don't."

You do, its called the on/off switch or simply change the channel.

Ala carte will kill small niche channels. If you have to pay for each channel you get over basic cable people will pick the channels they watch the most. I spend quite a bit on programming yet I decided against an expanded slate that included channels that interested me but I didn;t watch very often and we're talking a small cost increase in the bill.

Its why MLB bent the cable companies over th barrel recently because they(the cable companies) wanted the new MLB channel to be in a paid tier while MLB wants exposure.

"It could mean a CREATIVE EXPLOSION in the entertainment world by opening doors to those who have been shut out for the last couple of decades."

And you seem to be speaking of extending the FD to entertainment?

Is that correct?

[IndianaGreen]

2. How is Imus different from Glen Beck, or Rush, or Coulter, or Malkin?

For that matter, how is Imus different from the homophobic jokes of Jay Leno?

If we are going to debate how women, minorities, and LGBTs are constantly being demeaned in the media and music, let's have it all out!

BTW, Shapton's outrage is so faux when one considers his blatant racist role in the Tawana Brawley case.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I fully support a 'modernized' fairness doctrine.

Thanks for posting this.

[soothsayer]

4. the slippery slope from PC to censorship.

[TlalocW]

5. Al is wrong

The FCC was a poorly conceived idea that has too much power - people are appointed to essentially regulate free speech and tell us what we can and cannot hear and see. I don't like that idea. If Imus or any others want to shoot off their mouths and make racist slurs, there are other ways - much better ways - of dealing with it than going to this group and saying, "Please take away more of my rights so I don't have to hear some hick call Blacks, 'nappy-headed.'" The uproar has gotten him taken off the air for 2 weeks; he's digging his hole deeper, and sponsors are dropping him left and right. If we keep up the pressure ourselves, he'll be gone.

TlalocW

[NYCGirl]

6. Sharpton is absolutely wrong on this. The FCC should keep hands off cable. NT

[KoKo]

7. Why?

:shrug:

[NYCGirl]

9. Because cable is not public airwaves — we pay for cable, and it should not

be under the scrutiny of the FCC. It would shackle most everything, reducing HBO, F/X, Showtime, etc. to pablum.

[KoKo]

12. I pay for it and watch little of it. And, I'd like to be able to pay for MY CHOICE!

Instead my money supports stuff I don't want to see. If you read my post you'd see that I'd like cable to be fairer so that I could pay for the cable shows that I want to see. You could pay for the cable shows you want to see. That would be FAIR.

That's what I'm trying to say. I'm not denying your right to watch what you want to...but shouldn't both you and I be able to watch what we want to by paying a fee that just goes to support what we want to watch? :shrug:

Isn't that true capitalism....instead of this "one size fits all" that makes us pay for stuff we don't use?

[NYCGirl]

13. I don't agree with you on that point either; the most popular channels would

survive, while the smaller, more serious channels would get knocked off the airwaves. I'll pay for stuff I don't watch because it helps to keep on the stuff I do watch.

[MonkeyFunk]

16. Because the government

has no place regulating what's on cable, any more than it can regulate what's printed in the New York Times.

[sandrakae]

8. The FCC needs to monitor the Tom Joyner show.

There is nothing but racist trash talk on that show. Al Sharpton is not up in arms about that because they are only trashing white people.

[politicasista]

14. I never see his show as racist

He is black and white guests call in all the time. Kerry, Obama, Bill and Hil Clinton, Anderson Cooper, and Michael Moore just to name a few have called into his show the last three years or so.

[SKKY]

10. What Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson for that matter, need to do is get off their asses...

...and stop shooting fish in a barrel. The African-American community has many, many more problems than what Imus said. Oh, yea, and where was your "racial outrage" when Venus and Serena Williams' father called Lindsey Davenport a "Big White Turkey"??? A white guy from Ireland is doing 10 times more for blacks world-wide than you do for the blacks in America. How either of you sleep at night is beyond me, but I'm willing to be those are some very expensive sheets.

[NormanYorkstein]

11. First of all, Sharpton has railed against rap for years

Hardly just Sharpton but pretty much every single radio host, minister, and pretty much anyone over the age of 40 constantly complains and rails about violence and sexism in rap music all the time. Not a Sunday goes by when a preacher is not attacking 50 Cents and the like from the pulpit.

[LWolf]

15. I agree with this, at least in theory.

I'd have to see a concrete plan to decide if I supported that particular way of addressing multiple problems.

I think "hate speech" is a real, live, current issue. U.S. culture thrives on hate speech, in my opinion. Hate speech is alive and well everywhere, including here on DU. Some groups are "ok" to hate, some not, but while people don't agree on who it's ok to hate, it seems like everyone has at least one group they hate.

Some version of a fairness doctrine could return some balance to the media; regulating out of control corporate propaganda on the airwaves is a no-brainer.