The FCC masticated for your convenience:

Nicole Richie watch

The Indigest has been keeping a friendly eye out for Nicole Richie ever since she got Fox TV in hot water with the Federal Communications Commission for her comments during the 2003 Billboard Music awards.

"Have you ever tried to get cow shit out of a Prada purse?" Richie asked Paris Hilton during the televised event. "It’s not so fucking simple."

Not that we ever thought it was, but the remark certainly has kept Fox TV lawyers busy. No doubt additional retainers have been summoned since the California Highway Patrol arrested Richie on Monday.

News services report that the star of "The Simple Life" reality series had been spotted driving solo in the carpool lane on State Highway 134—in the wrong direction. The cops claimed that Richie admitted to them that she'd been smoking pot and taking vicodin, but no drug test results have been released.

We are happy to see that Quincy Jones, reportedly a close friend of her dad Lionel, has come to her aid.

"You get caught up in the peer pressure and the hoopla -- it's a media frenzy," the San Francisco Chronicle quotes Jones as saying. "It's insane. Success doesn't help. Processing success is a major, major, major process."

Hope it takes less time than litigating indecency complaints.

More days for media ownership commentors

Speaking of time, FCC has extended the number of days that the public can reply to comments already filed with the agency's media ownership proceeding. The Commission has pushed the deadline from December 21st to January 16th of next year.

The extension was prompted by a request from the Media General company to put the closing date off until 45 days after the agency completes ten recently commissioned media ownership studies, or, short of that, extend the filing limit to mid-January.

Media General owns TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers in the southeast. The firm wants a broad relaxation of FCC's limits on newspaper/TV/radio station cross ownership, and has submitted over 70 statements with the FCC to that effect.

The agency granted Media General's second request. It also announced that "once the Media Ownership Studies are complete, the Commission will make them available on its website for public review and comment."

E-mail hoax alert

The Federal Trade Commission's Web site has placed a warning on its front page: "You may have received an e-mail telling you that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls as a result of a new cell phone number database;" it says, "however, that is not the case. Federal Communications Commission regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers."

The bogus E-mail looks more or less like this:

JUST A REMINDER...In a few weeks, cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS... To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888/382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS...

Here is Indigest's sure fire three step guide for how to spot an E-mail hoax:

• The alert always seems to have been forwarded from a friend of a friend of a friend. You can't figure out where the message originally came from.
• The statement seems compelling, until you ask yourself one question: How come I'm not reading or can't find information about this opportunity or impending disaster anywhere else except in this E-mail message?
• The bogus text always ends the same way: PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!!

If your E-mail shares two out of three of these characteristics, get your cursor off the send button. You're about to get snookered.

Morse codeless

Once upon a time the President of RCA, David Sarnoff, prided himself on having "one of the best fists in the business." This boast did not refer to his boxing prowess, but to his skill as a Morse code operator, honed in the years just prior to the First World War.

That was then. It's been downhill for the dot-dash trade ever since. On Friday the FCC ruled that of the three kinds of licensed amateur radio operators: Technician, General, and Amateur Extra-Class, only Technicians still have to pass a five minute Morse code test.

"This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may discourage current amateur radio operators from advancing their skills and participating more fully in the benefits of amateur radio," the FCC ruled.