[Ecommerce] FYI: Center for Creative Voices in Media letter to FCC re Indecency rules

[Manon Ress]

FYI:  The Center for Creative Voices in Media has filed a letter to FCC
Chairman Michael K. Powell, co-signed by CCVM Advisory Board Member
Peggy Charren, one of America's foremost advocates for children's
television, and CCVM Exec. Director Jonathan Rintels, describing the
harmful impact of the Commission's Golden Globes indecency ruling on
both children and adults.

If you have any questions or comments contact:

Jonathan Rintels
Center for Creative Voices in Media
www.creativevoices.us

Please note  updated contact info:
Center for Creative Voices in Media
1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 100-494
Washington, DC 20005

(202) 448-1517 (voice)
(202) 318-9183 (fax)

FCC Indecency Rules Stifling Quality Programming, Must be Reconsidered

Overly-broad, vague new rules cause censoring of appropriate, protected,
salutary creative work, harming adults and children

Washington, D.C., May 13, 2004. Creative, original, challenging,
controversial, non-homogenized decent and appropriate programming,
already in short supply on television, is severely endangered by the
FCC's overly-broad, vague new indecency rules, write Center for Creative
Voices in Media Executive Director Jonathan Rintels and CCVM Advisory
Board Member Peggy Charren, the founder of Action for Children's
Television, in a May 11th letter to FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell
asking that the Commission reconsider its new indecency rules.

"Our concerns are not hypothetical or far-fetched. This week's front
page story in The New York Times, 'Eye on F.C.C., TV and Radio Watch
Words,' cites numerous instances of producers and stations altering
seemingly unobjectionable and inoffensive creative content to avoid any
possibility of running afoul of the Commission's opaque new standards.
When the producers of the acclaimed PBS series 'Masterpiece Theater'
feel obliged to water down that highly-respected show's language for
fear of an FCC enforcement action, then clearly the chilling of free and
appropriate expression is real, it is pervasive, and it is contrary to
the free expression rights and interests of not only America's creative
artists, but the American audience.

"This chilling of free and appropriate expression was an obvious
response to the new, significantly expanded regulation of creative
content by the Commission, as articulated in its Golden Globes decision
on Bono's impromptu use of the F-word. Despite this, many within and
without the Commission nevertheless supported its new policy on the
grounds that it is necessary to protect - and in the best interests of
-- America's children.

"Regrettably, nothing could be further from the truth. Government
censorship is not the way to protect children from inappropriate
television. The right to express what some consider offensive speech is
the price Americans pay for freedom of political speech and we cannot
afford to risk losing that freedom. It is not in the best interests of
America's children to "protect" them from expression that is itself
protected by the First Amendment -- unobjectionable and appropriate
creative works that are challenging, controversial, original, and
important. Unfortunately, these protected and salutary works - the very
works so many parents want their children to watch -- now risk being
left on the cutting room floor as a result of the Commission's new policy.

As Ms. Charren, the winner of the Peabody Award and the Presidential
Medal of Freedom, and one of America's best known and most respected
advocates for quality children's television programming, wrote over a
decade ago, "The problem, as our country has painfully learned in the
past, is that a little censorship goes a long way - toward imposing
someone else's arbitrary standards on all of us, toward removing any
controversial material from the public eye, and toward erasing precious
First Amendment freedoms...."

"Today, with the V-chip, and cable and satellite boxes that can block
programs and channels, there are many technological options for parents
and others to avoid television programming some might find offensive for
their children or themselves. And there are always the low-tech
alternatives of changing the channel or turning the television off.

"Creative media artists understand the Commission's desire to address
complaints, some well-founded, about indecent programming," continue
Rintels and Charren. "We do not write to you to support 'indecent'
programming. Rather, we write to support the preservation of creative,
original, challenging, controversial, non-homogenized decent and
appropriate programming, which is already in scarce supply, and is
severely endangered by the Golden Globes decision. The Golden Globes
'cure' for indecent programming is proving worse than the disease. It
goes too far and is by no means the least restrictive alternative
available for the problem of indecent programming. It does not serve the
public's interest - including the interest of America's children -- in a
vibrant and diverse media. Therefore, we support the Petition for
Reconsideration of the Commission's decision in Golden Globes."

For the full text of our letter to Chairman Powell and our supporting
documentation, please visit our website, www.creativevoices.us.

The Center for Creative Voices in Media is a nonprofit 501(c)(3)
organization dedicated to preserving in America's media the original,
independent, and diverse creative voices that enrich our nation's
culture and safeguard its democracy. Many Oscar, Emmy, Peabody, Tony,
and other creative award winners are members of CCVM's Board of Advisors:

Tony Adams, prolific producer, "10," "Switch," "Blind Date," "Skin
Deep," "Victor Victoria" (film and Broadway).

Hinton Battle, dancer, dramatic actor, singer, choreographer, writer,
director, and producer as well as America's only living three-time Tony
Award winner.

Warren Beatty, Oscar-winning writer, producer, director, and actor,
winner of the Academy's 2000 Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.

Stefan Bechtel, non-fiction author.

Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children's Television, winner of
the Peabody Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Blake Edwards, winner, Oscar for lifetime achievement, award-winning
director, writer, producer, one of only three recipients of the
prestigious Preston Sturges Award given jointly by the DGA and WGA,
awarded the French Legion of Honor, winner of the French Cesar.

Diane English, multiple Emmy-winning writer and producer, creator of
"Murphy Brown."

Tom Fontana, Emmy, Peabody, and Humanitas Award-winning writer and
producer of "Oz," "Homicide: Life on the Street," and "St. Elsewhere."

Marshall Goldberg, award winning writer, ("Life Goes On," "LA Law," "The
Paper Chase," "Newhart," attorney, Chairman of the Writer's Guild
Industry-Health Fund and Producer - Writers Guild Pension Plan.

Craig Haffner, President & CEO Greystone Television , Emmy Award winning
Producer.

Leonard Hill, prolific producer and leading member of the prestigious
Caucus for Television Producers, Writers, and Directors.

Charles Holland, writer-producer, "JAG," "Soul Food", former President,
Writers Guild of America.

Gregory Allen Howard, screenwriter, "Remember the Titans," "Ali," winner
of Christopher Award and Organization of Black Screenwriters Excellence
Award.

Gerald Isenberg, Professor, USC School of Cinema - Television,
award-winning producer of over one hundred feature and television films,
former President of Hearst Entertainment, former Chairman, The Caucus
for Television Producers, Writers, and Directors.

Martin Kaplan, Associate Dean, USC Annenberg School For Communication
and Director, The Norman Lear Center (as well as a screenwriter).

Richard Masur, actor, director, former President, Screen Actors Guild.

Mary McCormack, star of "K Street" on HBO, critically acclaimed stage,
screen, and television actor.

Dorothea G. Petrie, Emmy award winning producer.

Frank Pierson, Oscar-winning writer, director, President of the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the "Oscars").

Sarah Pillsbury, Oscar and Emmy winning producer.

Marian Rees, renowned independent producer of "Miss Rose White," "Love
is Never Silent," "Decoration Day," "A Son's Promise," and other films
that have garnered eleven Emmy Awards and thirty-six Emmy Nominations,
two Golden Globe Awards, six Christopher Awards, the Humanitas Prize,
and a Peabody.

David W. Rintels, multiple Emmy and Peabody-winning writer-producer,
"Darrow," "Sakharov," "Andersonville," "World War II: When Lions Roared."

Victoria Riskin, Past President of the WGA,west, and award winning
writer-producer.

James Sadwith, Emmy-award winning director for "Sinatra," writer, producer.

Sissy Spacek, Oscar-winning actress.

Sander Vanocur, a forty-year veteran of print and broadcast journalism,
including work for The New York Times and Washington Post, NBC and ABC News.

Paul Wagner, Oscar-winning writer-producer-director of documentary and
dramatic independent films.

Fay Wray, legendary actress, author, and playwright.

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--
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176