Public Sanctions Can Be Equally Effective
The Supreme Court’s decision in favor of Playboy Entertainment Group has surely disgusted and outraged many as further proof of our culture’s moral decline. The court overturned what seemed like a perfectly reasonable federal law requiring cable TV operators to either scramble sexually explicit programming for nonsubscribers or to air such programs only during hours when children aren’t likely to be watching TV.
The justices decided, 5-4, that the restrictive law violated the First Amendment guarantee of free speech.
It’s easy to imagine our founding fathers spinning in their graves over this. The First Amendment was written long before the invention of television, after all, during an era when sex wasn’t even discussed in polite company, let alone available in the form of viewable entertainment. They probably couldn’t imagine that our society would ever sink to this level.
The important thing to remember here is that the Supreme Court decision was not about the content of TV programming, pornographic or otherwise, but about protecting free speech. While the former is abhorrent to many, most people consider the latter to be sacred.
In other words, you might need to hold your nose while doing so, but give a cheer for the enduring strength of the U.S. Constitution.
Meanwhile, that same constitutional right guarantees that you don’t have to be silent on this matter. Consumers have a much bigger voice than any judge; supply-and-demand is stronger than legislation. It is, after all, largely consumer pressure that prevents the display of pornographic magazines in supermarkets. Stores have the right to do so but the public simply wouldn’t stand for it.
If you don’t like the programs offered by your cable TV provider, don’t subscribe to cable TV - then be sure to tell them why. Or, insist that they block the offensive material from entering your home. Silence can be taken as consent. And if there is enough demand for this material to make it profitable to produce and to air, then the freedom of those consumers has been protected.
The First Amendment gives each of us the right to speak our minds. But while this empowers you to stand on a bridge and shout your views to anyone who will listen, it doesn’t guarantee you a spotlight in the media. Likewise, just because a cable system can offer sexually explicit programs doesn’t mean it must do so. That is the broadcaster’s free choice.
But in the end, broadcasters also must face the free choices of consumers, who ought to insist this medium become less toxic to its youngest, most vulnerable viewers.