JAIL TIME FOR INDECENCY?
NY Post staff writer
http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/43961.htm
April 6, 2005 -- A major Congressional leader now says he wants to make
broadcast indecency — the smutty talk that gets Howard Stern and Opie and
Anthony into trouble — a criminal offense.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner III (R-Wis.) says criminal prosecution would be
a more efficient way to enforce the indecency regulations.
"I'd prefer using the criminal process rather than the regulatory process,"
Sensenbrenner said this week at the National Cable & Telecommunications
Association conference in San Francisco.
The current system — in which the FCC fines a station for violating the
regulations — isn't working, he said.
"People who are in flagrant disregard should face a criminal process rather
than a regulator process," Sensenbrenner said. "That is the way to go. Aim
the cannon specifically at the people committing the offenses, rather than
the blunderbuss approach."
Sensenbrenner could not say immediately how the law would work.
The FCC has fined CBS for the infamous Janet Jackson-Super Bowl incident
and Stern for a too-graphic description of sexual acts on his radio show.
It was unclear how much support Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, has for a such a drastic change in the law.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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