YOU ARE FROGGING JOKING, SURELY?

It's time to take a reading again from the US media, nearly two years on from Janet Jackson's nipple incident. A study by the Center for Creative Voices in Media has found that, apparently, there's a link between media consolidation and indecency. Now, we'd love to think that was true, but frankly it's just bonkers. Unless we want to believe that Clear Channel's business plan involves buying as many stations as possible in order to get the word "fuck" onto the airwaves.

No, actually, what the finding says is:

that from 2000 to 2003, four of the largest radio companies in the US were responsible for 96% of FCC indecency fines.

Sure, we support the CCVM call for caps on media ownership and so on, but this is just a spurious argument. Perhaps the reason why the four largest radio companies get fined so much is, erm, because they own so many radio stations? We're not sure what the combined market penetration of these four companies are, but it's going to be pretty high; added to which, the fact that they often buy up well-loved local outfits and change them beyond recognition might lead to the audiences of their networks being pissed off with their attitude to begin with, and thus more likely to complain if obscenity slips out. (You'll let the local ditzy lady get away with much more than someone who's shipped in out of town.) Finally, the FCC is probably more minded to come down heavily on obscenity which is syndicated than just slipping out on a single network.

So: yes, there may be a correlation, but we can't accept there's a causal link.

music radio fcc