Abolish the FCC

That's what Wired columnist Adam Penenberg is proposing in "An Obscene Waste of Energy" and I think is a splendid idea.

Not that he's the first to suggest it. As he points out in his article, Lynn Woolley pushed the idea in April 2004, digital libertarian Declan McCullagh called for its dismantling, and Ayn Rand Institute writer Robert Garmong said we'd all be better without the FCC trying to police the airwaves.

Which is exactly what the FCC has done with great vigor since Nipplegate at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. The FCC has handed out more fines in 2004 than they have in the last 10 years. They have created such a climate of fear among broadcasters that dozens of TV stations refused to air Saving Private Ryan on Veterans Day because they feared being fined for indecent language - even though the film aired on television without comment from the FCC in 2001 and 2002.

The FCC was set up to, and is suppose to concern itself with, regulating and protecting the broadcast industry. But what have the done this past year? Gotten into what can certainly be defined as censorship of content broadcast over television and radio and have made regulatory moves to allow more broadcast outlets to be controlled by fewer companies (essentially another form of censorship).

The FCC should get out of policing the airwaves. People will gravitate to what is good, and flee from what is bad. Look at the indifferent response to the horrid "Who's Your Daddy" on Fox. Instead the FCC should concern itself with protecting the airwaves so that more than one or two voices are allowed to be heard over them.

If FCC chairman Michael Powell can't figure that out (and sadly, I don't think he ca), then the FCC really should be abolished.