Would You Give the Federal Government the Time of Day?

Julian Sanchez | March 28, 2006

Well, someone should. Seems the FCC fined some Indiana TV stations a total of $162,000 for airing the CBS show Without a Trace—which apparently contains not-for-kids content—before 10 in the evening. Except someone forgot to remind the FCC that a big chunk of Indiana is, in fact, in the Eastern time zone—the program aired after 10 after all.

Comments

|3.29.06 @ 12:24AM|#

I for one have lost no faith in our great Federal Communication Commission. It's not like they're in charge of time zones anyway, right? central, mountain, pacific, standard, daylight?? Who can keep track?

Um, actualy I've traveled around a bit and still been able to keep track of local time... still

|3.29.06 @ 12:27AM|#

I've been to Indiana ONCE. I was there for as long as it took me to stop in Lanesville to eat and fill up my tank, and drive across the state. 3-4 hours tops. And I knew that. And that was in 1992. Now, granted, I AM a super-genius with omniscient powers, but still. You'd think the FCC could find another guy like me to keep around on the staff.

|3.29.06 @ 12:42AM|#

There's only one time zone in Jesusland.

|3.29.06 @ 1:03AM|#

I spent a week in Indiana once. Wasn't sure what time it was the whole time I was there.

|3.29.06 @ 1:47AM|#

I drove cross country from Boston to LA a couple of years ago. I skipped Indiana, driving from MA to NY to OH, then south, I forget the route but when I got to Tennessee I went on I-40 all the way to CA with a detour for the Grand Canyon. Took 4 1/2 days, driving at a speed "the man" didn't like the whole way, especially in Kentucky.

The only time I got confused on the time was when I was in Arizona for a pit stop. I could've sworn the clock on the wall was off by an hour, but the local cashier said it was correct. Oh well.

One thing that amazed me then, and before, and since then, is how often cars are bunched up in "clusterfucks" on highways with two lanes going the same way. Then when you finally clear the bums who apparently never learned the left lane is the passing lane, you had the road to yourself for a good long time until you got to another clusterfuck.

For what it's worth, too many cars needlessly driving in such close quarters as I just described is pointlessly dangerous, not even counting when I am there trying to pass them all. One blown tire and you can easily have a couple of dozen cars in a major accident, which could easily have been avoided if drivers weren't so intent on being near other cars for some stupid reason.

|3.29.06 @ 2:39AM|#

Indiana isn't really on Eastern or Central time. It's on Indiana Time. Most of the state has successfully resisted the institution of daylight savings time, so most of the state (I beleive this is decided on a county-by-coungty basis) spends half the year agreeing with Central and half with Eastern.

I'm sometimes so damn proud to be an American.

Oh yeah, and fuck the FCC.

|3.29.06 @ 3:48AM|#

This is totally unrelated, but check out this link:

http://mir.atdmt.com/b/TUTRU1234TRU/naughty_bluesparklesuit_430x600.jpg

I recognized the girl right away from the reason ads. She gets around.

s.m. koppelman|3.29.06 @ 6:08AM|#

Maybe broadcasters in the eastern part of the state should build a Faraday cage around the western part of the state.

|3.29.06 @ 7:28AM|#

I had a girlfriend once who passed herself off as Kentucky gentility. She was big on the Race of the Roses and such. Anyway, I find out she was actually born in a border town on the Indiana side.

I called her a "Hoosier" as a joke, and she almost took my head off.

|3.29.06 @ 8:58AM|#

We are in Jesusland after all, so it's no surprise that they'd want to clump together on the highways. It's harder to break a bundle of sticks than a single stick, right? Right? Wh-what if t-terrorists bombed the interstate?

|3.29.06 @ 9:02AM|#

I had a girlfriend once who passed herself off as Kentucky gentility. She was big on the Race of the Roses and such.

I watch the Run for the Roses every year. Who won the National Football Association's Stupor Bowl?

|3.29.06 @ 9:04AM|#

Clearly, the answer is to federalize time zones. Effective July 1, 2006, all of the United States and its territories will be on American Time (formerly known as Eastern Time).

|3.29.06 @ 9:11AM|#

But the western part of Indiana is on Central Time. So, in that part of the state, it would have been before 10 pm. So, in fact, the broadcasters broke their agreement not to air it before 10 pm.

Didn't they.

|3.29.06 @ 9:12AM|#

Herrick et al: About a week after Valentine's day (when said lovely was gracing a Reason subscription advert) I began seeing adds for Tru re-using the Reason ad picture (red bikini, heart shapped pillow, pearl & gold chain) on various (mostly libertarian) sites. You are correct sir, the girl do get around.

|3.29.06 @ 9:35AM|#

gnat,
Actually Indiana is officially on Eastern Time now. There was a big hubub recently and Indiana now acknowledges daylight savings (much to my chagrin).

|3.29.06 @ 9:36AM|#

The only time I got confused on the time was when I was in Arizona for a pit stop. I could've sworn the clock on the wall was off by an hour, but the local cashier said it was correct. Oh well.

You might have been in Mohave (yes, with an aitch) County. When I was there in 1969 they did not go on Daylight Savings Time. So in the summer they agreed with California and in the winter the rest of AZ.

|3.29.06 @ 9:38AM|#

Indiana isn't really on Eastern or Central time. It's on Indiana Time. Most of the state has successfully resisted the institution of daylight savings time, so most of the state (I beleive this is decided on a county-by-coungty basis) spends half the year agreeing with Central and half with Eastern.

Half credit. Historically, most of Indiana observed Eastern Standard Time year-round. The counties near Cincinnati and Lousiville observed Eastern Daylight Time, while those near Chicago and Evansville observed Central Daylight Time. Starting this year, most of the state will observe EDT.

|3.29.06 @ 9:59AM|#

"But the western part of Indiana is on Central Time. So, in that part of the state, it would have been before 10 pm. So, in fact, the broadcasters broke their agreement not to air it before 10 pm."

I think compliance is most likely measured by where the broadcaster is physically located, rather than the outer limit of the transmission's range.

|3.29.06 @ 10:37AM|#

Correct, "It's called Standard". And I'll be looking very closely when I get my Indy 500 tickets this year to see if they have "EDT" printed after the race start time instead of "EST", which they've printed in past years.

|3.29.06 @ 10:45AM|#

I'm under the impression it is called Daylight Time when "they" are messing around with "God's time", the heathens. It is called Standard Time the other 6 months of the year.

Garth|3.29.06 @ 11:06AM|#

Arizona does not do the whole Daylight Savings thing... no changing clocks.

|3.29.06 @ 11:21AM|#

happyjuggler - Garth is correct, we do not do the daylight savings here in AZ, so the clerk was correct, and you were also "correct" but didn't realise that we don't swing that way down here. :)

|3.29.06 @ 1:40PM|#

Figuring out what time it is in Indiana is the easy part; it's what year they're living in that's tricky.

|3.29.06 @ 1:44PM|#

Arizona does not do the whole Daylight Savings thing... no changing clocks.

I am enlightened. I got the impression it was a Mohave County thing. Seems I was mistaken.

|3.29.06 @ 6:53PM|#

Say it ain't so, Mo, say it ain't so!

|3.29.06 @ 7:02PM|#

I don't know if anybody knows what's going to happen to Indiana's time. I've got a couple of flights there in the next couple months, and the flight times make absolutely no sense, which means that the airlines don't even know what's going to happen.

My friend from Indiana calls the governor a "Nazi" for observing DST like the rest of non-tropical world.