Senate Votes to Shut Up Loud TV Commercials
Treasure it, because it's rare: The Senate has passed a good-sounding bill! Ever notice how you're watching a TV show and then it cuts to commercials that are ten million times louder? That appears likely to end now.
Corporate types have always lobbied to protect their right to SCREAM advertising slogans at you on television, to the point where your tired little brain has no choice but to guide you, zombie-like, to the nearest merchant selling their consumer goods. Those of you who watched Lost should be especially familiar with this. So loud during commercials! Thank god that show's over, and thank god this practice is (hopefully) over:
Legislation to turn down the volume on those loud TV commercials that send couch potatoes diving for their remote controls looks like it'll soon become law.
The Senate unanimously passed a bill late Wednesday to require television stations and cable companies to keep commercials at the same volume as the programs they interrupt.
The House has passed similar legislation. Before it can become law, minor differences between the two versions have to be worked out when Congress returns to Washington after the Nov. 2 election.
This is better than solving the unemployment crisis, basically, assuming those "minor differences between the two versions" can be worked out, which... well, you know, this Congress. They have trouble sometimes!
This bill, by the way, has a textbook government euphemism for its name: The CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act. Others will simply call it the best act ever.
