What is the most powerful business or industry in this country? No, it is not the defense industry, even though it can blow everything into tiny pieces whenever it likes. No, it is not the political business, even though it can destroy everything we love and cherish. No, it is not the religion business, even though it can send us on a lifetime of guilt trips.
The most powerful industry in the country is the advertising business. It tells us what to buy. It tells us what to eat. It tells us who to vote for. It even tells us what to believe. It is so strong that it has destroyed our privacy without as much as a whimper of complaint from us. (Of course, they say they needed to destroy it -- in order to get us advertising we are interested in and sparing us from other advertising -- in order to charge sellers higher fees for placing the ads.)
But, 65% of every advertising dollar spent buys time on television. Therefore, the advertising industry will destroy anything that threatens its domination of our television sets.
For years, the over-whelming number of complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission involved the excessively-loud and intrusive commercials. For years, the advertising industry would allow the FCC to do nothing. Finally in 2010, Congress passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (the CALM Act). For over two years, the advertising industry has been "litigating" the new law line-by-line to slow down implementation. Even conservative pundits have sympathetically referred to the campaign as "regulator-abuse."
Last Wednesday, the FCC announced it needs yet another year to study how to turn down the volume. It would be good for America if one industry did not have so much power! Maybe, Santa Claus will bring us some peace & quiet . . . some CALM sanity next Christmas . . . but I doubt it!
The most powerful industry in the country is the advertising business. It tells us what to buy. It tells us what to eat. It tells us who to vote for. It even tells us what to believe. It is so strong that it has destroyed our privacy without as much as a whimper of complaint from us. (Of course, they say they needed to destroy it -- in order to get us advertising we are interested in and sparing us from other advertising -- in order to charge sellers higher fees for placing the ads.)
But, 65% of every advertising dollar spent buys time on television. Therefore, the advertising industry will destroy anything that threatens its domination of our television sets.
For years, the over-whelming number of complaints received by the Federal Communications Commission involved the excessively-loud and intrusive commercials. For years, the advertising industry would allow the FCC to do nothing. Finally in 2010, Congress passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (the CALM Act). For over two years, the advertising industry has been "litigating" the new law line-by-line to slow down implementation. Even conservative pundits have sympathetically referred to the campaign as "regulator-abuse."
Last Wednesday, the FCC announced it needs yet another year to study how to turn down the volume. It would be good for America if one industry did not have so much power! Maybe, Santa Claus will bring us some peace & quiet . . . some CALM sanity next Christmas . . . but I doubt it!
