Indecency
Today was the first of several indecency days in my communications law class. So just why do we treat broadcast and cable differently?
At the end of it all, after we had carefully taken apart Pacifica and ACT III and decided that the whole construct was pretty incoherent and vague, I asked the class how they felt about having broadcast indecency rules eradicated.
I got a mixed reaction. Sure, the legal part doesn't make sense, but if the rules go away the market will probably want more and more adult material. And that'll be disturbing both to the people who have kids and to the people who don't have kids but want “safe” television and radio during the day.
This is not a generation of First Amendment absolutists. In other classes, I've also found that this is not a generation of privacy/civil liberties absolutists either — they're often comfortable with searches and surveillance of various kinds. In some cases (definitely not all) they're willing to believe that all of that apparatus is likely to make us safer. No big conclusions here, just noticing.
(I think my students are great. Hi, students!)