by The Post's Frank Ahrens on April 6 and May 18

On government regulating mass media content: "It is very difficult to follow the thread through on content issues without quickly getting to the idea that someone in the government wants to assign values to content, saying 'This counts more than that,' and 'You should be watching this kind of show and not that kind of show, because we think it's better for you or better for society.' . . . Administrations, FCCs and congresses come and go and, for the most part, television continues to evolve in the way in all likelihood it naturally would have anyway. . . . If we turn TV into the "Brady Bunch' tomorrow, we will still be dealing with hurt, societal rage, the challenges of poverty, challenges of an oppressive culture, I would submit."

On regulating mass media content in the Powell household: "I can tell my kid he can't watch a certain R [rated] movie. But my kid, at 12, has seemingly seen every R movie. I'll say, 'Jeffery, where did you see that?' [He'll say,] 'Well, I was spending the night at Keith's house and his mother rented it.' Well, in Keith's Mom's family, they are not troubled by that. I could say, 'You can't have Keith as a friend.' But how are you going to do that?'

On youth being at the forefront of the digital revolution: "You are really fundamentally evolving human relationships by the way kids relate to each other by technology -- from chatting to instant messaging to mobile communications -- which were not characteristic of our generation and youth. This will change the way they are as adults."

On e-mail vs. paper: "I have an edict around here . . . if you want me to make a decision on something, you're not going to get it from an e-mail. You better send me a memo with paragraphs and the ritual of writing. It should produce clear options and a clear consideration of facts. Then I'll make a decision."

On technology vs. human behavior: "I remember being in the 6th grade and someone showed me an AT&T videophone. Ain't nobody got one now. Nobody wanted to do that. I don't want to talk to my sister in her underwear. They misjudged people. For instance, I love the idea of interactive TV, but I'm still mentally squaring it with the couch potato culture. I thought the killer app[lication] of TV is that [viewers] like to lay there and just watch it."

On mandating television broadcasters to provide children's programs: "In many ways it's a misfire. When I was a kid, you got up and ran to the couch and watched Saturday morning TV. This is not what happens in America anymore. They get up and they go to soccer practice. They never, ever watch cartoons on Saturday morning. . . . When I was a kid, we'd say, 'Ultraman is coming on at 3:30, we gotta get home and watch Ultraman.' My kid's don't ever think about when a show is coming on. All they do is say, 'Let's turn on Nickelodeon; let's watch cartoons.' Because they know that will be available to them."

On new parents, cable television and minivans: "Maybe the two of them never had cable. Me and my wife always kid them, 'Oh, you will.' It's just like saying they won't get a minivan. You can fight this all you want but you will have a minivan. You will join the rest of us because you have to have one."
(Powell has a satellite television system at home and surfs through more than 100 channels. Industry wags have nicknamed him "The Dish Commish," and "The Couch Potato Chairman.")

On digital vs. analog: "I love gadgets more than anybody, but the idea that you can reduce human brilliance to binary thinking is a fatal error. A computer can say "yes" or "no." You can say "yes" 150 different ways -- that's analog. The subtleties of the way you can communicate a single word is 10 times more powerful than a computer, which can only say "yes" or "no." You can convey a hundred different meanings."
(Powell calls his belt-mounted cell phone and pager his "pistoleros.")