America’s $15 trillion debt is soaring. Some 13.3 million Americans are unemployed. The economy is stagnant. Regulations are weighing down job creation. But hey, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission are taking action to truly set America back on the right path: They’re making sure that television commercials aren’t too loud! CNN reports:
Television commercials that are a lot louder than the program will be prohibited under rules adopted Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission.
“Under our new rules, TV providers must ensure that the average loudness of commercials will be no higher than the average volume of the programming they accompany,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski after a vote to approve the proposal…
That authority was contained in the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, or CALM, Act, authored by California Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo. She issued a statement Tuesday saying, “TV stations now have the responsibility to turn down the volume on excessively loud commercials, and it’s about time.”
Sure, loud commercials interrupting TV shows and Sunday Night Football are annoying. But commercials are altogether annoying anyhow, aren’t they? Thankfully, there are remarkable inventions designed to counter these horrible nuisances — remote controls, “mute” and volume buttons, DVRs to skip commercials altogether, and devices known as “fingers” that allow viewers to operate this incredibly advanced technology. As Heritage’s Diane Katz put it:
It’s hard to fathom why Congress would consider it necessary to regulate the decibel levels of television advertising. But that’s precisely the purpose of the CALM Act, which, in addition to ranking among the most excessive exercises of government authority, also ranks high on the list of truly irritating acronyms.
But that’s Congress and the FCC hard at work for you — spending precious hours making sure they tackle the big problems plaguing the American people. What should we stay tuned for next? Look out for louder TV programs!
