FCC Chairman Michael Powell is hoping that he can convince Congress to give his commission authority over cable TV networks, as part of an ongoing effort to wipe everything that Powell finds indecent or obscene from the national media landscape. At the moment, the FCC has no power over cable, since such networks do not use the public airwaves and are a subscription-based service available only to those viewers who choose to pay for it. Joanne Ostrow finds Powell’s attempted power-grab alarming: “An activist FCC must not trample the free-speech provisions of the Constitution, even if Powell thinks he is a hero, saving America from itself.”