Former FCC Chair Flip Flopping On Indecency?

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, January 9, 2012 | 9:31am CT

Remember how eight years ago, then FCC chairman Michael Powell was quite zealous in his charge to start punishing broadcasters for expletives on live TV shows -- action that is still being reviewed and argued by the courts today. Well that was then. Funny thing is now Mr. Powell works for the National Cable & Telecommunications Association in Washington, which represents Fox and cable operators and suddenly has a very different tune.

Bloomberg is reporting that Powell now regrets his vote saying, "If I were voting again, I would have dissented. I've always been deeply troubled by the way the First Amendment changes when you change channels." Really Michael -- always? Tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear arguments that the FCC is violating the Constitution by imposing fines for on-air indecency and while the matter at hand focuses on television, obviously implications spill over into the world of radio. Fox and ABC are asking the court to overturn a 34-year-old ruling that lets the FCC regulate broadcast indecency while exempting cable and satellite television and the Internet.

It was all that many years ago when a majority at the FCC decided to sanction a radio station for airing the late comedian George Carlin's profanity-laced "Seven Dirty Words" monologue. At the time, Michael Powell was 14 years old.