Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Activists who beat back the FCC on media consolidation are dismayed to find former allies leading an unprecedented effort to restrict radio and TV content.
Apr 14, 2005 | News that the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee wants to move indecency enforcement out of the hands of the Federal Communications Commission and start arresting broadcasters on criminal charges for indecency infractions is just the latest example of the aggressive bipartisan one-upmanship that's unfolding in Washington as politicians jockey for position over who can crack down harder, and with more imagination, against indecency on radio and television.
Public and legislative discussion of the indecency issue used to be limited almost exclusively to election-year cycles, but that tradition has been broken as momentum builds to institute the most radical FCC reforms in U.S. broadcast history. And unlike the last headline-making FCC debate -- over the contentious issue of media consolidation -- the current commission seems unified in its pursuit of those reforms, worrying activists who fear they skirt too close to censorship and would give politicians unprecedented control over the content of our culture.
The latest battle over indecency, sparked by Janet Jackson's infamous 2004 Super Bowl performance and embraced by both political parties, will heat up in coming weeks as the Senate crafts its indecency bill, which will then be married in conference to the version the House passed easily last year.
Among the sweeping, get-tough reforms Congress is considering are increasing the fine for indecency infractions from $32,500 to as much as $500,000 per incident, revoking broadcast licenses, instructing the FCC to start policing violent content as an indecency infraction (something the commission has never done before), fining artists whose broadcast material is indecent, fining writers who create indecent material in advance (as opposed to lines ad-libbed over the air), extending the agency's reach to include cable television and satellite radio, and requiring cable companies to offer a greater variety of channel packages so viewers can avoid potentially objectionable programming. (Because cable television is a paid subscription service, rather than a free public broadcast, the FCC now has no jurisdiction over its programming.)
But it was the comment by Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., that moved the debate into a drastic new direction -- one that was unimaginable just 18 months ago. Last week he told industry executives attending the National Cable and Telecommunications Association trade show that 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 is crazy," says Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, in reference to this Republican trial balloon on criminalizing content. "Regulating the creation of content is a very slippery slope. Today it's raunchy words. What is it tomorrow?"
"Based on what's happened so far" in the indecency debate, "I fear the worst," says Robert McChesney, a professor at the University of Illinois and the founder of the media reform group Free Press.
Analyzing some of the agency's recent indecency rulings, former FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani says, "I'm concerned the FCC has gone too far." Chester, McChesney and Tristani are veterans of the recent media consolidation campaign, in which a unique, bipartisan coalition rose up to successfully oppose the Bush administration's attempt to further relax ownership rules for companies such as News Corp., Viacom and the Tribune Co. During that battle, media activists enjoyed almost uniform support from Democrats as well as the backing of some renegade Republicans who broke with the party leadership.
In contrast, media activists scrambling to blunt the indecency momentum have few supporters on the Hill. In fact, key Democrats such as Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., have been out front in support of the proposed FCC reforms. Says Chester: "I think it's alarming how so-called liberal members of Congress are into indecency group-think. They are contributing to this chilling effort to curb speech." Although it may be disappointing to lose their support, it's not so surprising that Democrats as well as Republicans want to take such a stand in the indecency debate, which is regularly framed as an attempt to protect children from lewd and vulgar programming.
What is surprising for free-speech advocates such as McChesney and Chester, who fear the effects the indecency reforms could have, is that when they look across the newly formed battle lines they see some of their closest anti-media consolidation allies leading the charge for new enforcement of content.
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