Ding Dong - Mike Powell is Gone!

My grandmother, a classy British lady still spry at 86, has a saying that goes, "Good riddance to bad rubbish." It was my first polite thought when I heard FCC Chairman Michael Powell was stepping down. My personal opinion is more Americanized: Don't let the door hit your fat ass on the way out.

There are moralizing demagogues on both sides of the political aisle. The politically correct ultra-left and moralizing religious right have much in common, although they'll never admit it. One of their paranoid goals is to eviscerate any democratic dialogue they disagree with or that fails to conform to their personal standards, and with Michael Powell they found a champion. Powell will go down in history as a case study of how nepotism and government censorship can produce a completely unqualified candidate who was unable to fairly oversee the nation's airwaves. He is a man who over-regulated free speech that offended very few and under-regulated media conglomerates to stifle small business.

Powell's first megablunder -- appointing himself censorship police, judge and jury -- are completely at odds with his first news conference, where he declared the public and sponsors should decide what is on the airwaves without government watchdogs. His draconian indecency enforcement, the rules of which were never defined, have broadcasters running scared when they should have the First Amendment to protect them. When network TV affiliates in major markets are unable to show "Saving Private Ryan" because they fear the FCC fines, you have a government agency out of control. When a popular broadcaster like Howard Stern is called indecent because one organization with a minute membership writes thousands of identical form letters, you have a bureaucracy that fails to account for the public's preferences. And when Powell holds the NFL and CBS responsible for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" and uses it as a springboard to launch a morality and censorship crusade, you have everything a Republican pro-individual administration should not be - injecting the government and it's (not your) standards into what you should listen to and what is acceptable.

It's bad enough I have so-called peaceniks and preachers telling me what should and should not be allowed on the airwaves. Thank God and our founding fathers we have the First Amendment, which saves these pundits from any lawsuits I could file because I'm offended by what they say. I find Michael Moore and Michael Savage offensive, but I'm not going to ask the government to say they are because I, like most fourth graders, understand that free speech is free speech. Too bad the guy in charge of our public airwaves doesn't.

Powell's other megablunder is deregulating the media companies to an extreme, stifling competition and giving consumers almost no choice in where to get the entertainment they want. Now I am not a regulation hawk. I understand that regulations can stifle innovation and overburden companies that need to turn profits for their employees and investors. But even conservatives like William Safire are alarmed at how Powell has opened the floodgates and made it virtually impossible for smaller and independent media companies to exist in the current climate of mega-corporations and mergers.

It is vital to capitalism and democracy that people have a choice of where and how they get their information. Monopolies aren't fair in baseball and they're not fair in other businesses. It's well-known that Clear Channel is an entertainment juggernaut that has monopoly control over radio stations, entertainment venues and TV stations across the country. How can a small, independent business compete against it? Powell's do-nothing preferences here speak volumes.

As happy as I am to see him go, don't be complacent. Many on the FCC applaud Powell's views, especially how he can define his vague "decency" notions for the country. It's almost certain his successor will continue his views.

But for now, good riddance.