Category: Politics

Before Jon Stewart there was Frank Zappa

For a little retro-80s political wonk amusement, surf on over to the ifilm.com Best Viral Videos collection and play the clip of Frank Zapp on Crossfire in 1986.

Frank Zappa: “The biggest threat to America today is not communism, it’s moving America towards a fascist theocrocy. And everything that’s happened during the Reagan administration is steering us down that pipe.”

Robert Novak: “Mr. Zappa, do you … do you really think, I mean all kidding aside, in this country with the permissiveness, that we are moving towards a fascist theocracy?”

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Tucker Carlson gone from CNN

It appears that CNN has said goodbye to Tucker Carlson, one of the four hosts of CNN’s Crossfire known for the on-air “disagreement” between himself and Daily Show host Jon Stewart.

The best quote from the article comes from CNN’s Chief Executive Jonathan Klein:

“I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp,” Klein told The Associated Press.

Activist group accounts for 99% of all FCC compaints

From Mediaweek.com:

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners’ statements.)

Interesting statistics, and perhaps further proof that the majority of people feel that they have more than enough control over the public airwaves in the form of their remote, without the need to complain to the FCC anytime they come across something they find objectionable.

“Half of all gay teen males have AIDS” and other falsehoods

The following comes from the Washington Post

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 2, 2004; Page A01

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person’s genitals “can result in pregnancy,” a congressional staff analysis has found.

Those and other assertions are examples of the “false, misleading, or distorted information” in the programs’ teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

In providing nearly $170 million next year to fund groups that teach abstinence only, the Bush administration, with backing from the Republican Congress, is investing heavily in a just-say-no strategy for teenagers and sex. But youngsters taking the courses frequently receive medically inaccurate or misleading information, often in direct contradiction to the findings of government scientists, said the report, by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), a critic of the administration who has long argued for comprehensive sex education.

You can read the rest of this story here.

FTC changes your access to your credit report

According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers will be able to request free copies of their credit reports very soon:

Soon you’ll be able to get your credit report for free. A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. The FCRA promotes the accuracy and privacy of information in the files of the nation’s consumer reporting companies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation’s consumer protection agency, enforces the FCRA with respect to consumer reporting companies.

This will no doubt anger those companies who routinely made $25 for access to your latest credit report.