240,000 Americans...er...a handful of robots, can't be wrong, can they?

Via lots of places over the past couple of days. This one from TAPPED.

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators. The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, "a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes."

What Powell did not reveal -- apparently because he was unaware -- was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 -- 99.8 percent -- were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints -- aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS -- were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners' statements.)(emphasis added)[by TAPPED]

Michael Powell didn't realize, when he testified, that the outrage over the malfunction was largely organized by Brent Bozell and his army of the outraged. But now realizing it, he is still moved by their lemming-like cries and robotic pleas, he says in a recent op-ed.

Advocacy groups do generate many complaints, as our critics note, but that's not unusual in today's Internet world. We are very familiar with organized protests when it comes to media issues, but that fact does not minimize the merits of the groups' concerns.

Jeff Dubner writes that, ok, it's great that there's a venue for those aggrieved by Janet Jackson's performance-enhanced cleavage, and it's also great that there is a simple Net-driven way for them to register their aggrievedness. But, he asks, where do those of us outraged by the Bozell-inspired outrage register our complaints to the FCC?

But I have another question. Why is Mr. Powell so affected by organized complaints over a silly stunt, but unmoved by the far more widespread (and far less organized) opposition to his FCC's laissez-faire attitude toward -- nay, leadership of -- media consolidation?

TERENCE SMITH: In the hearing today, there was mention of some 750,000 comments that the commission received on this and Commissioner Copps said that 99.9 percent of those were opposed to it [emphasis added]. What does that say to you?

MICHAEL POWELL: Well, I don't know how accurate that is. I don't think anybody has ever conducted a truly meaningful survey of what we received but I will concede the point that we had strong amount of email and news that expressed concern [emphasis added]. You have to look at what we heard.

If you pulled any one of these post cards out of our bins, what you would have read is that there's a general anxiety or concern about consolidation. Many of the comments were I'm not for monopolization of the media; I'm against excess consolidation of the media. So am I, and I think so are my colleagues.

The key is what constitutes excessive and what constitutes healthy, and I think that's a difficult and subtle judgment [emphasis...you know]. I think the commission has attempted to strike that balance in this proceeding. Just to put an emphasis on it, I think it's important for viewers to understand we eliminated not one single rule. And at least with respect to the radio rule, we actually tightened the rule. And for the four remaining rules, we modified them slightly. I think that's going to increase the possibility that they're sustained in court and that we continue to have a vibrant set of media limitations.

"...what constitutes excessive and what constitutes healthy...I think that's a difficult and subtle judgment." So is determining what constitutes offensive and what constitutes silliness, but Powell has no problem in that area.