March 4, 2004

The Honorable John McCain
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator McCain:

I want to applaud you and the other members of the Commerce Committee for your leadership in addressing the growing problem of indecent and obscene material on television.

As you know, decency standards on television are rapidly deteriorating.  Last year the Parents Television Council released a series of studies on the State of the Television Industry.  Those studies showed that sex, foul language, and violence on television are more explicit and more pervasive than ever before.  But as bad as broadcast TV has gotten, it's nothing compared with what children consume day and night on expanded basic cable. 

Offensive content was more than twice as frequent on original cable programming as on broadcast TV, according to the PTC's last study of expanded basic cable.  If we ever hope to address the problem of indecency on broadcast television, we must address indecency on cable as well. 

Expanded basic cable has become a kind of Pandora's box for families.  Many parents welcome expanded basic cable into their homes because it opens up a whole universe of family-friendly programming.  There's the Disney channel, Nickelodeon, ABC Family Channel, the Discovery Channel, and more.  But to access these educational and family-friendly networks, they are also forced to pay for channels they don't want and that actually make their job as a parent much more difficult.  Now, in addition to trying to protect their children from the filth on Fox, NBC, UPN, and the other broadcast networks, they also have to try to protect their children from the much more explicit fare on MTV, FX, Comedy Central, and the like.

The cable industry argues that parents have the option of blocking channels they don't want – but what kind of a choice is that, when they still have to pay for those channels?  Analog cable subscribers actually have to pay extra money to scramble the channels they don't want.  It is wrong to put the burden of blocking those offensive networks on the consumer.

Consumers need to have a better option. 

I am writing to you today to ask you and the other members of the Commerce Committee, to urge the cable industry to offer consumers cable subscriptions à la carte.  Let consumers choose the channels they want, and pay only for those channels they desire.  It is summarily wrong for the cable providers to force consumers to pay for a product they not only don't want, but which they find morally offensive or even harmful to their children. The cable operators and the cable networks have been carried on the backs of the American public long enough.

There is no doubt that the industry will vehemently oppose any efforts to change, and you can expect to be inundated with their lobbying efforts. They will assert economic disaster to the industry, technical infeasibility and constitutional violations. But these allegations are false. A PTC review of the economic and technical issues concluded that both assertions are wholly without merit; and we rely on your Committee to draft legislation capable of withstanding constitutional scrutiny.

Cable is now in nearly as many homes as broadcast TV.  We can no longer afford to ignore the rising tide of vulgar and violent programming on cable.  It is my sincere hope that you and the other members of the Commerce Committee will move swiftly to address this problem.

Sincerely,

L. Brent Bozell, III
Founder and President
Parents Television Council

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03.14.03: MCCAIN: CABLE CONSUMERS SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY FOR PROGRAMMING THAT THEY DON'T WANT