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As the article states, "The slippery slope is all too real here. Where does it end?" The answer, it never really does. That's the importance of events like Banned Book Week. To constantly keep the issue in front of us, to be constantly aware that there are people, no matter how well intentioned, who wish to restrict what we read, listen to and view. If we simply ignore them, censors will not go away. They will not get bored and stop. Censors never give up. Neither can we.

"The Coming Push for Cable Censorship

Written By: Adam Thierer
Published In: IT&T News
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
Publisher: The Heartland Institute

In late August, Salon reported that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has met privately with numerous religious and “pro-family� groups to coordinate policies to address “racy content on cable and satellite television.�

Rick Schatz, president of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, who sat in on those meetings, told Salon, “[Martin] said the free rein of cable and satellite and satellite radio is not acceptable,� and that Martin is “committed to seeing something is done during his tenure.�

That comes as no surprise. While things have been quiet for the past few months, most industry watchers agreed that the reason for the delay on this front was that the pro-regulatory forces were quietly planning their attack on cable and satellite. As the Salon article makes clear, censorship proponents know they have an uphill battle and are tightly coordinating their efforts to radically expand the scope of federal indecency law.

The pressure comes amid ongoing media and technological convergence that has placed a great deal of strain on the old analog-era, broadcaster-oriented model of content regulation. The result is a collision of jurisprudential visions that has profound ramifications for the First Amendment treatment of all media providers and forms of content."

The Heartland Institute