Senate OKS Fines of $3 Million Per Day For Indecency

[KRL]

WASHINGTON - Faced with public ire over racy language, explicit scenes and skin-baring outfits, the Senate overwhelmingly agreed on Tuesday to fine radio and television broadcasters and personalities as much as $3 million a day for airing indecent entertainment.

After the uproar stoked by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" at this year's Super Bowl, the Senate rushed the bill through on a 99-1 vote without floor debate.

GOP Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas said the issue had been debated enough. Lawmakers have continually criticized broadcasters for airing what they say is increasingly coarse programming that can be seen or heard by children.

"People are tired of this indecent material on over-the-air public broadcast, particularly during prime time when people's families are watching," said Brownback, the bill's sponsor. "We're going to have to take action because the broadcasters won't police themselves."

Under the measure, the maximum fine for both broadcasters and entertainers would increase to up to $275,000 per indecent incident, up from $27,500 for license holders and $11,000 for personalities. The fines would keep increasing for each incident until a maximum fine of $3 million a day is reached.

The House passed a similar bill that would set fines at $500,000. Differences between the two bills must be worked out.

The Senate moved the measure without debate as part of the massive defense bill expected to be approved later this week. The only senator to vote against the measure was Sen. John Breaux, D-La.

Breaux said he opposed the bill partly because "it deals with communications and media issues and should not have been attached to a national security and defense bill."

Federal law and FCC rules prohibit over-the-air radio and television stations from airing offensive material that refers to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., hours when children are more likely to be tuned in. No such restrictions exist for cable and satellite TV or satellite radio.

The FCC currently has no power to regulate those channels, which are available through subscription to the 85 percent of the 108.4 million U.S. households with televisions.

Introduced in January, after FCC Chairman Michael Powell demanded higher fines, the bill wound up on a fast track to passage after the Feb. 1 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Timberlake partially exposing Jackson's breast for an instant to 90 million viewers.

The incident generated more than 500,000 complaints to the FCC.

If the legislation isn't approved as part of the bill to authorize spending for the Defense Department, Brownback said he would try to find another way to get it through the Senate. "This is something the public wants," he said.

[Za Ha]

VERY GOOD, it should be more. Little kids should not have to be exposed to shit like that. If they wanna show tits and ass do it at nite time, when the little ones are in bed.

[M_M]

i hate broadcast tv anyway

[ZanyCash Larry]

Thanks Janet

[freeadultcontent]

Fucked up part is there really is no appeal process. Someone just needs to send in the time it happened, what they considered indecent, and a copy of the broadcast if possible. Of course this does not apply to the safe harbor times set by the FCC.

There is also no set rules on what is deemed indecent for the networks to decide. So we shall all expect a whole crap load of self imposed censorship.

[PatrickKing]

Its the fat cats stomping out more of our rights.

[fudpuck]

Originally posted by M_M
i hate broadcast tv anyway

[titmowse]

does this mean we can complain about penis pill commercials? those four-hour hardons scare me.

[jhauser]

I bet we dont see too many wardrobe failures with that kind of fine.

[Elli]

That's bass-ackwards. I would censor the violence before I censor natural bodily functions. I'd rather my kid see a human naked on TV than have him watch a human kill another human. But maybe I'm weird that way...