Commentary: The broadcast TV networks want to dumb down kids' programming — and the FCC might let them do it
Robert Hutchins, the great University of Chicago sage of education, remarked nearly 60 years ago that television, "one of the greatest technical marvels in history," had been so degraded that "it is as though movable type had been devoted exclusively since Gutenberg's time to the publication of comic books."
Apart from PBS' offerings and a few other shows, there's not much of educational broadcast children's TV that might have changed his mind. In exchange for the free use of the public airwaves, networks that make billions of dollars from that largesse must make a fairly piddling commitment to a minimum of three hours of educational programs for kids a week, limits on advertising on kids' shows and the like. Now the Federal Communications Commission has proposed dumping even those negligible requirements because, it asks, who needs them in the internet age? It's taking public comments on this until late September.
Dale Kunkel is an emeritus professor and longtime expert on children's television who has testified on Capitol Hill about children and media. He teases out why the FCC would look out for broadcasters' interests, rather than those of children being left on the far side of the digital divide.
Q: What is the FCC considering doing, and why is it looking doing at this?
A: The FCC has required that television stations air children's educational programming
