Theaters Want To Jam Cell Phones? Why Not?

I’m usually the last person in a room to proclaim “there ought to be a law…” However, there are times when I’ve contemplated murder (for which I’m told there are laws) against people who lack simple manners in public - and nowhere is this more apparent than in a typical movie theater. (Well. Maybe the road, but that’s probably why I choose not to own a car.) Instead of relying on the common courtesy of strangers to not jabber away on cell phones in the middle of a movie I’ve paid to see, I wouldn’t mind if the darned things just failed to work at all in the confines of the theater. Reuters (via Yahoo! News) reports:

Movie theater owners faced with falling attendance are considering asking federal authorities for permission to jam cell phone reception in an attempt to stop annoying conversations during films, the head of the industry’s trade group said on Tuesday.

Industry leaders at the ShoWest conference for theater owners want to find ways to win back crowds.

“I don’t know what’s going on with consumers that they have to talk on phones in the middle of theaters,” John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, told the ShoWest conference in Las Vegas.

Theaters are trying a number of ways to silence cell phones, from sweeps by ushers to funny fake movie trailers urging viewers to shut off phones.

Fithian said owners were considering other steps if that does not work.

“We will actually petition the Federal Communications (Commission) to remove the block” on jamming cell phones, he said…