Why does America have the FCC?

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I think this relates to Autism because it seems to be a black and white; yes or no issue to me. Why do we have the FCC tell us what we can or cannot say if we have the freedom of speech? I am 35 years old so I was not really aware of the whole cold war thing. I grew up thinking that communists and nazis were the "bad guys" because they were trying to suppress or take away freedoms from people in other countries. I always had the impression that if we were not careful then Americans would lose freedoms too. I thought every American of my generation and younger generations knew about these historical "bad guys" that wanted to take away our freedoms. And I, like many of my peers, took delight in exercising our freedom of speech whenever we could get away from the "tyranny" of parents, teachers, etc. Our slang, curse and swear words were more than bad words, at least to me. At that time, they symbolized freedom. As I grew older I realized they were part of my identity. I now understand that the FCC was responsible for most of these words.

I understand the need to regulate media. What I don't understand is why this regulation extends to words. It seems to be a result of a "grey" area that some people invent out of thin air. I try to explain to the average person that the FCC regulates companies. The FCC does not regulate private citizens. So why do I still hear people telling me that I can't say certain things? Is this a result of the FCC? I make a futile attempt to explain that I am a grown man. I am my own boss. No one has the right to tell me that I can't say certain things.

Because nasty words, sometimes, leads to nasty actions.

And also because there are certain people, especially older people, who do not delight in hearing such things as curse words over the airwaves. It protects their sensibilities.

I'm not a believer in censorship, by the way. I'm just stating their justification for it.

I'm not really a lover of "cursing for cursing's sake" myself.

The FCC censoring swear words and hate speech is just an added bonus of sorts. The original purpose of the FCC is to protect communication channels. Anything being broadcast uses frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum. Now, there is only one set of frequencies. If a large corporation, or even a criminal-minded natural person or business entity, decided to snap up all the frequencies for its own use, who would stop them? No one, really. At least not without a scenario resembling The Purge (movie reference).

That's where the FCC comes in. Their original role was to limit each natural person's or business entity's use of the electromagnetic spectrum, so that everyone gets equitable (not necessarily equal) access. They also leave some frequencies unregulated, to allow for limited free-for-all usage. CB (citizens' band) radio is one notable example. Also walkie-talkies, whose broadcast is too weak to reach the next town, let alone the ionosphere, as is the case for some radio and TV stations. They also reserve blocks of frequencies for maritime and aviation communications, as well as the police, firefighters, and medical personnel. And in national emergencies, they can also take over the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and broadcast critical updates on all frequencies, so everyone receives them.

Of course, like with any US government organization, corporate lobbyists ruin things for everybody. Large corporations end up grabbing large sets of frequencies for themselves, after having paid off the Congress. But even then, they can't grab all the frequencies, which could easily be the case if the FCC didn't exist.

FCC purpose it to regulate the spectrum of channels to ensure they play nice with each other, approve devices that use spectrum or new communications technology such as LTE.

They also are required to regulate the telecommunications industry and landlines.

Lastly they are required to regulate and monitor Over The Air TV channels.

The FCC is only required by law to regulate the Over The Air channels and Standard Radio to prevent indecency (yes it was made law by Congress in the 1950s).
This is now weakening.

There is no regulation of speech on Cable/Satellite TV channels, Satellite Radio, Internet, Video Games, etc... because you pay for it willingly and it is outside the mandate of the FCC.

The FCC if anything is too weak at most regulations, especially industry regulations.

Depending on the polls, Americans want the FCC to go further on regulating public broadcast and adding paid formats to the list or they don't want it at all.

when I was in broadcasting class i was told the fcc was not generally in the habit of proactively enforcing rules [i.e., listening on all channels waiting for a "GOTCHA!"] regarding broadcast profanity but will indeed levy sanctions as long as there are complaints. they regard each complaint email or letter as quasi-statistically equal to 1000 complaints. Canada has a similar bureaucracy they call DOC [Department Of Communications] with similar criteria, but since Canadians in general are far more liberal-minded than most americans, they don't generally bother themselves with busting broadcasters over profanity and/or nudity like they do down here in puritanical amuurica. 2 court cases strengthened the fcc's hand in this regard- the "uncle Charlie walker" case in the early 60s, and the 1978 "FCC versus Pacifica" case- the former proscribed "indecent" language while the latter was about "obscene language."

They have no authority to tell us what to say. They have authority to tell TV stations what to say.

There are only so many "channels"- so many places on the spectrum of radio waves. So someone has to be empowered to dole the frequencies out to all of the FM, AM, television, CB radio, police radio, military communication, WiFi, and so on, interest groups.

Also back in the 1936 half of the nation fled to the hills because Orson Welles convinced America that it was being wiped out by genocidal Martian invaders when he turned H.G.Wells "War of the Worlds" into a radio play, and neglected to include disclaimers in his broadcast.

^^^ I slightly beg to differ in that there was at least two disclaimers in the broadcast. it is just that, in the words of h.l. Mencken, "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." because of that, we have our government doing its damndest to hide the UFO truth from us. and advertisers hold 99% of the puppet strings controlling expression but not all- NBC in the 50s bravely broadcast sans commercials, a season of nat king cole in prime time when no advertisers were brave enough to pay for ad time for fear of upsetting racists.