What with all the hard-line digging-in of heels among politicians on both sides of the aisle, it's a great relief to see everyone coming together to pass a much-needed piece of legislation.
No, I'm not talking about the compromise over tax cuts and complex matters like that (which in any case, may yet change shape).
I'm talking about a bill that will preclude advertisers from jacking up the volume of their television commercials louder than the regular programming. Finally, it seems this problem, which has generated complaints for years and has no proponents other than the advertisers, is going to be fixed.
It's a triumph of bipartisan political cooperation, and a triumph of the people over the corporations, albeit on a small, simple issue -- and it only took about 30 years for Congress to do something about it.
Possibly, it's already too late, since watching television is passé. Nowadays people watch movies and shows on their smart phones, tablets, or computers; and if they do watch television, they're probably not seeing it "live." For at least two decades, we've been recording what we want to watch (news is the exception) so we can skip commercials; more recently we also have the option of "on demand" offerings from our cable provider, which don't contain commercials.
In fact, the changing nature of the TV market may be the reason that this legislation can pass now; advertisers are less dogged in defending their right to intrude on a medium that's catching fewer eyeballs anyway.
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