Lawmakers Push for Airwave Cleanup

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Lawmakers Push for Airwave Cleanup

Post by Tsyroc »

I presumed this was because the Republican's were in charge right now but the article suggest that the recent hearings on the FCC might have pushed things.

All I know is that the (non-scientific) poll on AOL appears to be strongly against swearing and nudity being on the airwaves. Personally I could go with a little less swearing but I don't think people should be fined for it. As for the nudity, I'm all for more good, quality nudity. :twisted: Just keep that creepy, sick nudity out of there. We're not ready for that.


Lawmakers Push for Airwave Cleanup
JONATHAN D. SALANT, AP wrote:
WASHINGTON (Jan. 28) -- Republicans and Democrats took turns Wednesday criticizing federal regulators who they say haven't done nearly enough to shield the public from indecent programming on radio and TV.

The lawmakers supported sharply increasing the fines which the Federal Communications Commission can level against broadcasters who air such shows.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., and chairman of the House telecommunications subcommittee that held a hearing on indecency, criticized what he called a ''race to the bottom'' among broadcasters.

''As a parent with two young children, I believe American families should be able to rely on the fact that - at times when their children are likely to be tuning in - broadcast television and radio programming will be free of indecency, obscenity and profanity,'' Upton said.

The hearing was held a day after the FCC proposed a record $755,000 fine against Clear Channel Communications for the ''Bubba the Love Sponge'' program aired on four of its Florida radio stations.


Talking Trouble



Reuters/Corbis

· The Mouth: Howard Stern
· The Act: A record fine in 1995 covered over 100 indecency claims aimed at the "King of All Media."
· The Fine: $1.7M


AP

· The Mouth: Bono
· The Act: At the 2003 Golden Globes, U2's lead singer exclaimed, "this is really, really, f------ brilliant."
· The Fine: Still waiting


KRT

· The Mouth: Opie and Anthony
· The Act: In a 2002 segment on their radio show, a couple was reportedly having sex in New York City's St. Patrick's Cathedral.
· The Fine: $357,000

Sources: AP, CNN, E! Online




The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell of Michigan, wondered if the congressional hearing spurred the FCC to act to strongly.

''I hope it signals a heightened seriousness on the part of the agency, and I will be watching closely to see that the FCC does not backtrack on its newfound aggressiveness on this issue,'' Dingell said.

House members of both parties have sponsored legislation to increase the maximum fine for indecency from $27,500 to $275,000. The Senate Commerce Committee already has approved such an increase, and the Bush administration endorsed the House bill Wednesday in a letter by Commerce Secretary Don Evans.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell has called for the higher fines. Other commissioners have urged that stations be penalized for each individual incident rather than pay one fine per program. Commissioner Michael Copps has asked his colleagues to revoke broadcast licenses.

David Solomon, chief of the FCC's enforcement bureau, told lawmakers that the commission has stepped up its enforcement of indecency rules. It has proposed fining broadcasters $1.4 million in the last three years, compared to $850,000 in the preceding seven years.

''The commission is fully committed to vigorous enforcement of the broadcast indecency restrictions in order to protect the interests of America's children,'' Solomon said.

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Parents Television Council, a conservative advocacy group, told the House panel that the FCC was not doing its job.

For example, the FCC had never fined a television station in the 50 states for indecency until Tuesday, when the agency proposed a $27,500 penalty against the owner of the KRON TV station in San Francisco on Tuesday for briefly airing a man exposing himself.


''Looking at the FCC's track record on indecency enforcement, it becomes painfully apparent that the FCC could care less about community standards of decency or about protecting the innocence of young children,'' Bozell said.

William Wertz, who owns four radio stations in Kalamazoo, Mich., said part of the problem is that broadcasters are no longer governed by a code of ethics. The Reagan administration forced the National Association of Broadcasters to drop the code on antitrust grounds in 1982.

''We're very concerned that we've witnessed a steady decline of over-the-air decency standards,'' Wertz said, criticizing some of his competitors' programming.

Clear Channel has called for an industry task force to develop indecency standards for radio, television, cable and satellite networks.

''We work hard every day to entertain, not offend our listeners,'' said John Hogan, head of Clear Channel Radio. ''None of us defend or encourage indecent content. It's simply not part of our corporate culture.''

01-28-04 2002EST
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Post by RedImperator »

Of course they have evidence that "indecent" programming causes such objectively verifiable harm that a quarter-million dollar fine is warranted for saying naughty words, while at the same time no fines are warranted for depicting dead bodies or people being shot. Right?
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Post by Tsyroc »

Just the other day one of the guys I work with was complaining about too much sex on tv. Nothing but sex, sex, sex.

I asked him if he'd rather have violence and he said yes, more violence. :wtf: His kids are going to turn out interesting. :?
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Post by Mayabird »

I wonder if it ever occured to them to just not watch TV if they're so upset about it. Then, even if there's nothing but hardcore midget porn on 24/7, their kids won't see it.

It seems kinda obvious to me, anyway.
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Post by neoolong »

I think that America should be able to rely on parents monitoring and controlling what their kids watch.
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Post by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi »

Sure, they could whine to the government about how couples are allowed to share beds and discuss pregnancy on TV nowadays, or they could acknowledge that the earth revolves around the sun and not their moral code and monitor what their kids watch.
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Post by HemlockGrey »

The one thing a political group can do that will set me dead against them is to attempt to promote an agenda under the guise of "decency" or any such bullshit. Take, for example, something I saw on a new broadcast fundie television station: A (fundie) talkshow host interviewing the head of the "Texas Commission for Public Decency"

WTF? Commission for Public Decency? It's downright Orwellian!
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Post by Tsyroc »

Notice how with new TVs you can block certain channels, or shows with certain ratings. You can even set up your DVD player so it only plays movies with approved ratings. :roll:

This reminds me of the Simpson's episode where we see that Flanders has a sattelite dish and has blocked 100+ channels. I think only one or two channels weren't blocked.
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Post by neoolong »

Tsyroc wrote:Notice how with new TVs you can block certain channels, or shows with certain ratings. You can even set up your DVD player so it only plays movies with approved ratings. :roll:

This reminds me of the Simpson's episode where we see that Flanders has a sattelite dish and has blocked 100+ channels. I think only one or two channels weren't blocked.
With stuff like this there really isn't a justification to really censor television.

The damn tv does it for you, so you don't need to go to the network about it.
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Post by Tsyroc »

neoolong wrote: With stuff like this there really isn't a justification to really censor television.

The damn tv does it for you, so you don't need to go to the network about it.
That's basically what I'm thinking. It's been awhile now but I remember when parents complained that channels like Spice and The Playboy channel weren't scrambled well enough. The single bar and all the distortion wasn't enough because kids (and adults) where watching the stations through the scrambling. The sound always came through well anyway and every now and then the signal would either completely descramble for a second or you might just get a clear photo negative version of what was going on. Since then I think that adult channels have to be blocked from non-subscribers better than that. (On my parent's cable I think Spice used to share the same channel as one of the request channels.)

Unfortunately some of the complaints in the article above have also had to do with radio. I'm surprised that they havn't started selling stereos where you can program it to lock out certain frequencies. Then maybe well see a resergance of analog tuners with the knob that you used to manually tune up and down the dial. :)
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Post by Darth Wong »

The definitions of "obscene" are truly a perverse exercise in social conformist groupthink. They cannot come up with an objective standard for what is obscene, so they simply declare that something is obscene if it offends "community standards".

In other words, if you say something that the majority finds offensive, for whatever reason, you get the big CENSOR hammer dropped on you. How nice :roll:
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Post by Warspite »

Hum, when someone starts using the "decency" moniker, this always reminds me of a certain Law passed during the thirties...
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