Markets, Morality and Monday Night Football
With the election over and the Scott Peterson trial completed, the American media apparently has little else to report but the supposed scandal over the raunchy Terrell Owens Monday Night Football pre-game skit.
For conservatives like the Heritage Foundation's Rebecca Hagelin, ABC and the NFL joined to open yet another front in the war against the traditional values and decency of the American family. For those on the left, the Disney-owned ABC network's cross-promotion of its Desperate Housewives during MNF brought back the Mandingo and other stereotypes of yore. For the media, this once again was an opportunity to discuss the overblown electoral importance of "values voters" and "moral issues."
For my part, I believe this mole hill-turned-mountain reflects something much more important, and in the long term, more interesting. That is, the belly-aching on the right highlights once again the tenuousness of the alliance between "social" conservatives and "economic" conservatives. The traditional religious Right sees a culture at risk; the laissez faire free marketeers want media markets, concentration and ownership unfettered by the heavy hand of the government. Unfortunately for them, they can't have it both ways.
The MNF episode is a clear demonstration of Perrspectives' Iron Law of Markets that states while free markets produce economically optimal results, they can also produce disasterous consequences for society as a whole. In this case, ABC, which is owned by family-focused Disney, offered the American consumer the product it desired, in this case, raunchy titillation.
In theory, angry viewers-cum-consumers could express different preferences by changing the channel and watching something else. Alas, the rapid consolidation of U.S. media markets, from television and cable properties to radio and print, means Americans' alternatives are decreasing - and fast. Disney owns ABC, ESPN and Miramax; Rupert Murdoch's Fox empire is larger still. The much publicized Sinclair Broadcasting reaches 25% of American homes. Clear Channel dominates radio. America's values voters, put off by the scatalogy and innuendo on ABC have little choice; they could tune in the conservative Murdoch's Fox network and see any one its huge array of reality shows. Sick of Terrell Owens? No problem. Fox has Paris Hilton waiting for you.
We know that American viewers in fact are not fed up with Hollywood. Economic conservatives will tell you that they are clearly expressing their content preferences when they swarm to shows like "Who Wants to Carry My Baby to Term?" or other similar abominations.
For social conservatives, there are two three-letter answers: FCC and GOD. The former could censor or otherwise regulate content to change programming; the latter could change Americans' hearts. But while Michael Powell's FCC might implement fines and other sanctions at the margins, he and the Bush administration have made it clear that media concentration is of no concern to them. And while Jesus may have frowned on "The Bachelor" and "Who Wants to Marry My Father?", it's not at all clear his followers in the United States are actually hitting the remote. (Note to sociology grad students: this could be an interesting thesis topic.)
We're not, of course, the first ones to highlight the potential for socially undesireable outcomes in the operation of free markets. Robert Kuttner in his book Everything for Sale detailed this danger in depth as it applies to the "markets" for health care, education and energy in the United States. 45 million uninsured sounds like a "market failure" to most Americans; so does $2 a gallon fuel and power blackouts in California. And the reigning Republican orthodoxy on media concentration means Americans can expect fewer choices - and more trash - on TV.
This chasm between social and economic conservatives may yet unravel the current GOP hammer lock on American government. Limit payments to welfare mothers and the anti-choice forces scream about increased numbers of abortions. Push for the punishment of China for its suppression of Christian faiths and the American business community (and the permanent GOP foreign polocy establishment of Kissinger et al) will cry foul and call for the maintenance of the existing trade relationship.
Ultimately, Americans may come to see the wisdom of the Democrats view of balancing market incentives and market limitations. In the meantime, they'll just have to see Nicollette Sheridan disrobe before kick-off.
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