Broadcast Indecency Laws Worthless

FRC Attorney: Unless Enforced, Tougher Broadcast Indecency Laws Worthless

By Bill Fancher and Rusty Pugh
February 14, 2005

(AgapePress) - Legislation and representation. Those are two areas of influence a pro-family advocate says could have major impact on the content of television and radio broadcasts in the near future. But unless indecency laws are enforced, he says, nothing will change -- and families will continue to be battered by indecent content.

Pat Trueman says the resignations of FCC chairman Michael Powell and one other FCC commissioner -- reported to be Kathleen Abernathy -- could jeopardize even further the quality of programming on radio and television. Trueman, senior legal counsel for the Family Research Council, points out of the three remaining commissioners, one is pro-decency, one is anti-decency, and one straddles the fence.

Trueman says commissioners who are "pro-decency" are desperately needed to fill the two spots. "The impact of two family-oriented commissioners [appointed] by President Bush could make a monumental difference in the character of network television and radio," the attorney says. "We hope the president will be mindful of the cultural decline in this country and put two good people on the FCC."

Part of the FCC's jurisdiction includes imposition of fines against broadcasters who violate decency statues either through imagery or speech. Several Capitol Hill lawmakers are attempting to clean up the airwaves by introducing legislation that would increase the amount of fines levied by the FCC against broadcasters who have crossed the line. Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, a leader in that effort, recently introduced such a measure: the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005.

"We're still moving forward with the decency bill of increasing the fines tenfold for indecent material on over-the-air public broadcast using public airwaves for radio or television," the Republican lawmaker explains. "That bill has been introduced [and has] been referred to the Commerce Committee. The chairman of the Commerce Committee wants to move it quickly."

Brownback says he fully expects the bill to pass early in this congressional session. Co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the legislation would increase the maximum fine for each violation to $325,000 with a penalty cap of $3 million for any single act. Current law caps penalties at $32,500 per offense.

Trueman says measures such as the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 huge steps in the right direction. But strong statutes against indecency sill do no good if they are not enforced, he says.

"But we also have to get the law enforced correctly so it's a 'per utterance' enforcement," the FRC spokesman says. "One show lasting an hour that has five or six indecent images in it should be five or six penalties." Enforcement such as that, he adds, "would really put the fear of God into these networks."

Trueman says fines of those magnitudes would not only get the attention of giant media corporations, but likely would also cause local affiliates to exercise much greater caution in what they allowed to be aired by their station.

Edgy Cable
Meanwhile, while those broadcasting on the airwaves must concern themselves with FCC indecency regulations, cable providers continue to push the envelope with more graphic content. One national cable company, the Adelphi Communications Corporation, recently added "Triple-X" content from Playboy Enterprises to its programming slate.

That move has Trueman upset. He says the five-million-plus subscribers to Adelphia are about to get illegal obscenity piped into their homes.

"Why is a major corporation deciding it's okay to make money on illegal, obscene material?" he asks rhetorically -- then offers the answer. "The answer is lack of enforcement by the Justice Department. This decision would never be even considered had the Justice Department over the last several years been vigorous in prosecuting obscenity."

Trueman believes it will take changes at the Department of Justice before more obscenity prosecutions will take place -- and then future deals like that between Adelphia and Playboy will not happen.

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