Complaints push FCC to action

To the editor:

There's been a lot of talk in the press lately about how one activist organization, the Parents Television Council, is trying to dictate television standards for the rest of the country by encouraging its members to file complaints with the FCC. It seems that the press believes the hundreds of thousands of complaints filed by outraged citizens over the rampant raunch on television somehow don't count simply because the complainant belongs to an organized group.

If the networks put an FCC complaint form on their Web sites or if they flashed the FCC's phone number across the screen between shows, there would be a flood of complaints. Parentstv.org is currently the only Web site that provides this useful tool.

But the number of complaints filed and where they're coming from shouldn't matter. Whether we're talking about one complaint or one million, it all boils down to one issue: Are networks breaking the law by showing indecent content, and will the FCC do its job to enforce the indecency laws?

ED BRIDGEWATER, Bloomfield, Mo.