The Dept. of Justice has finally approved the Sirius/XM merger.  I couldn't be more happy about this since I have a Sirius subscriber.  That means that my programming options will increase greatly.  For instance, right now I can listen to any NFL game I want because Sirius has a contract with the NFL, but MLB games are not available since XM has that contract.  After the merger, the world will be my oyster.  Of course, that very idea scares the crap out of major terrestrial radio companies like Clear Channel, which want the FCC to force the new XM/Sirius brand to obey draconian federal regulations as a condition of the merger:

The nation's biggest radio station owner has asked the Federal Communications Commission to force a merged XM/Sirius satellite radio company to obey the agency's indecency laws as a condition for union. "One of the primary potential dangers to free, over-the-air radio posed by this merger is siphoning popular, including 'edgy' content, with consequent loss of advertising revenue," Clear Channel wrote to the FCC on March 11th. "That potential harm is mitigated if broadcast decency rules were to apply to the merged entity. There is no constitutional bar to such a condition."

Right, no constitution bar to such a condition... other than that pesky 1st Amendment thing.  What does the 1st Amendment say again?  I keep forgetting... oh wait... now I remember:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The whole argument is stupid because Sirius and XM are subscriber based services.  How Clear Channel thinks they can restrict those... while HBO has free reign is beyond me.  Besides, Sirius does an excellent job at self policing.  Some of their stations self censor, specifically for their subscribers.  For instance, they have stations that have adult stand up comedy, and also family oriented comedy.  Some of their music stations don't bleep out any nasty words in songs, while others do.  With hundreds of channels to choose from, you can literally pick the level of offensiveness you'd like to listen to.  And ultimately, isn't that the best way to do it?  But Clear Channel has said very clearly that what they're most afraid of is losing listenership to competition, but that shouldn't be a reason to regulate.  I hate to break it to you Clear Channel, but maybe the fact that people are willing to pay for radio, just to avoid your content ought to tell you something about your business.

Of course that's not all Clear Channel wants.  They want the FCC to allow for another license to the Satellite space... which actually is a fine idea.  I never understood why the FCC originally limited it to two in the first place.  If another company can come in and be profitable, than the more the merrier I say.  But ironically, Clear Channel also wants to restrict Sirius/XM from offering local content.  Right now, there are stations on Sirius which provide local traffic and weather for major markets.  How Clear Channel can claim that they want more competition, and then ask the FCC to restrict competition to Clear Channel is just downright amusing.  They also want to force Sirius to provide more "public interest" programming, but don't define what that means.  You'd think that traffic and weather reports would fit that bill... but that would be logical, and we can't have that now can we.

Of course, the very fact that there exists a government body which can hamstring how a company does business in return for allowing two companies to merge at all is just downright un-American.  But that's just the crazy Libertarian talking now.