I read today that Michael Powell has resigned as Chairman of the FCC. I don’t have a particular problem with Chairman Powell, personally. He is an advocate of deregulation. He once called TiVo, “God’s machine.” For those who use, know and love TiVo, it is hard to disagree with the Chairman. For those of you who know and love Howard Stern, you probably an axe to grind with the Chairman and if I were to voice a criticism of Chairman Powell, it would be that he seems to have an axe to grind with Mr. Stern.
When Jimbo is playing basketball on Sunday afternoon with his cronies and a fight breaks out, Jimbo is usually the first to step into the middle of the fray and try to separate the combatants, so I guess it wouldn’t be out of character for him to step into the middle of this one. If you are a regular viewer of Howard Stern on E! or if you listen to his program on the radio, you know that “The King of All Media” can push the envelope of decency and the FCC (and by default Chairman Powell) is quick to level a fine when he does. Then the King goes on television and bad mouths the Chairman and the Bush administration. Lord knows, if criticizing the Bush administration were a sin, Jimbo would himself face eternal damnation, so we can‘t criticize the King too much for that.
If one checks the facts, the truth is that the Chairman was appointed to the FCC by President Clinton, however Bush appointed him Chairman of the FCC, and since that time it seems there has been a shift in the FCC that would align it more closely with the morality of Dubya, himself. Like most working people, the Chairman is only doing what his boss wants him to do, but like those brown-nosers around the office that everyone resents, he may be taking it too far.
The lesson history teaches us that morality and decency are best regulated by the free market. If something is indecent, it is our right to avoid it and not support it with our dollars. If no one watched Howard Stern, he would go away, leaving Jimbo to place his less-than-attractive tush on the throne and achieve his rightful place as King (of all media). Instead, by fining the King to try to dissuade him from his “evil” ways, all the Chairman (and therefore the omniscient Dubya) has accomplished is to divert the King into the new and unregulated frontier of satellite radio-- where no expletives are deleted and any amount of bad taste is tolerated.
The reason I have even brought up the fact that the Chairman is resigning is that at first blush it may seem like a good thing that an adversarial Chairman is going away and I’m sure that the King will be happy to see him go. But how many times have you been in this situation? You had a boss that no one could get along with and one Monday morning he’s not in his office and the rumor mill quickly confirms he’s been canned. The next day his replacement shows up and has a meeting with all the staff and he lets you know in no uncertain terms that he’s badder and more demanding than the guy before him and if all of you don’t start working longer and harder you’ll be gone just like his predecessor was. You quickly ascertain that you’ve gone from bad to worse.
My concern is that Dubya will find someone else a little less compassionate and a little more conservative and we’ll look back at the Chairman and think he wasn’t all that bad.
Because in Jimbo’s world we know that no matter how bad it gets, it can always get worse.
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