Just days after the House finalized the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act by an overwhelming margin, the measure was signed into law by President Bush, and became effective immediately.
Broadcasters who violate restrictions on indecent language or content in their programs will see their fines increased ten-fold, from $32,500 to $325,000 per incident, with a focus on the hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. when children are more likely to be watching.
The bill does not cover cable or satellite television, which are subscription services.
Passage of the legislation capped a two-and-a-half-year effort by Congress to crack down on risque content over the airwaves following the partial exposure of a female performer during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.
The House previously had approved a more stringent measure last year, that would have boosted fines to a maximum of $500,000 per violation and mandated a license revocation hearing for a station after a third violation, but it became mired in committee in the Senate.
The legislation was co-sponsored by Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Representative Fred Upton (R-MI).
Brownback called the bill a “victory for children and families.”
“Parents have a hard enough time, as it is,raising their children in a world saturated with violent and explicit media. Raising the fines for abusing the public airwaves will hold broadcasters accountable for the content and consequences of their media,” Brownback said.
Upton said, the legislation will be of “real value to families across the nation.”
“I am hopeful with higher fines now the law of the land, that the race to the bottom is over, putting a stop to the filth and the triple-x smut that was polluting the public airwaves. The American public had said ‘enough is enough,’ and we heard them loud and clear. I am confident that broadcasters across the nation will now think twice about pushing the envelope, as violating decency standards will no longer merely be viewed as a cost of doing business. This legislation will provide parents a little more comfort when their children turn on the TV or radio,” Upton said.
Representative Chip Pickering (R-MS) is Vice Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee which drafted an earlier House version of the legislation.
“Radio and television broadcasters make a covenant with the American people to maintain standards on the public airwaves. A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful. Our public airwaves provide a chance to affirm we want to be a good, decent people; a good, decent nation. America does not want vulgarity and sexual exploitation to be our values, and we do not want the world to think those are our standards. We want to be a better nation and a better people, with better standards,” Pickering said.
The president, at the signing ceremony, called it a “good bipartisan bill.”
“Every day, our nation’s parents strive to raise their children in a culture that too often produces coarse, vulgar and obscene entertainment. In our free society, parents have the final responsibility over the television shows that their children watch, or the We sites they visit, or the music they listen to. That’s a responsibility of moms and dads all across the country, to make sure their children are listening to, or watching, the right kind of programming.
The best way to do that is for parents to be vigilant, pay attention to what their children are doing. Parents are the first line of defense, but broadcasters and the electronics industry must play a valuable role in protecting our children from obscene and indecent programming.
They provide the tools that empower parents to make good decisions, which is voluntary rating systems and the V-chip. And we applaud those. Broadcasters also have a duty to respect common decency, to take into account the public interest, and to keep the public airwaves free of indecent material, -- especially during the hours when children are most likely to be watching and listening.
Unfortunately, in recent years, broadcast programming has too often pushed the bounds of decency. One study found that during the hours between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.–that’s the time when most families are watching television–the use of profanity on television shows increased vulgar language by 95 percent, from 1988 to 2002. In other words, the language is becoming coarser during the times when it’s more likely children will be watching television. It’s a bad trend, a bad sign. Since 2000, the number of indecency complaints received by the FCC has increased from just hundreds per year to hundreds of thousands. In other words, people are saying, we’re tired of it and we expect the government to do something about it.
We must ensure that decency standards for broadcasters are effectively enforced. That’s the duty of the FCC. By allowing the FCC to levy stiffer and more meaningful fines on broadcasters who violate decency standards, this law will ensure that broadcasters take seriously their duty to keep the public airwaves free of obscene, profane and indecent material. American families expect and deserve nothing less,” the president said.
Industry and pro-family organizations also hailed implementation of the stiffer fines.
Parents Television Council President Brent Bozell said, Americans are “celebrating this major victory.”
“They have spoken loudly and clearly to Congress. They are fed up with the raunchy and gratuitously violent content that’s broadcast over the public airwaves, particularly during hours when millions of children are in the viewing audience. We hope that the hefty fines will cause the multi-billion dollar broadcast networks finally to take the law seriously.
We have documented and proven that the ratings system and V-chip are fatally flawed and do nothing to protect children from the barrage of filth that Hollywood is dumping on the public airwaves, oftentimes aiming it directly at impressionable youngsters.
Instead, the networks must have a significant financial penalty for violating the indecency laws and the public trust. We certainly hope that this legislation will provide such a deterrent,” Bozell stated.
Likewise, Morality in Media President Robert Peters said, it’s hoped the larger fines will “hopefully get the attention of both corporate executives and shareholders.”
“While there is undoubtedly a market for sex and vulgarity, opinion polls indicate that most Americans are offended by and concerned about the glut of sex and vulgarity on TV. While Americans cherish their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and the press, most also want to live and raise children in a safe and decent society. The V-chip may help some parents, but the V-chip is no substitute for corporate responsibility.
Increasing the maximum fine poses no threat to freedom of speech because the First Amendment was not intended to provide a license to pollute public spaces with indecent talk and pictures; because, as the Supreme Court has already held, enforcement of the indecency law does not constitute impermissible ‘censorship,’” Peters said. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, no longer will indecency fines be viewed as an “irrelevant cost of doing business.”
“Hopefully, the media giants will hear the message loud and clear–the American people own the public airwaves and have a right to reclaim a greater sense of decency and control over the airwaves. Broadcasters will now pay a substantial penalty for violating the public trust,” Perkins said.
Other groups said that the tougher fines will embolden parents.
Daniel Weiss, senior analyst for Media and Sexuality of Focus on the Family Action, said, “American families are more protected from indecent programming, and can feel confident those polluting America’s airwaves will face severe consequences for their actions. This law is a major accomplishment for concerned citizens who refused to accept the status quo, and continued to make their voices heard until Congress took action.”
Concerned Women for America, in a statement, said, “The American public is taking back their airwaves and demanding clean, wholesome entertainment. TV watchers should soon be less likely to stumble across vulgar language and insulting material as they flip through the channels.” Randy Sharp, director of special projects for American Family Association, noted, “Parents are fed up with networks that generate gratuitous amounts of sex, violence and profanity via the public airwaves, particularly during hours when children may be watching. They are more than ready to fight back by filing formal complaints with the Federal Communications Commission.”
Opposition to the stiffer broadcast indecency fines was relatively muted. Opponents said, the legislation attacks freedom of expression ,and unfairly singles out broadcast networks while ignoring cable and satellite programming.
That point was noted by National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton.
“In issues related to programming content, NAB believes responsible self-regulation is preferable to government regulation. If there is regulation, it should be applied equally to cable and satellite TV, and satellite radio,” Wharton stated.
Jim Dyke is executive director of TV Watch, a group that opposes government regulation of television programming.
“The 30 percent of Americans who live in a household with kids already have the information they need to make informed decisions about what to see on TV, and the tools to enforce those decisions. Asking the government to take on the role of parents is not just bad public policy, it’s unnecessary,” Dyke said.
On a related note, the major television networks and their affiliates recently sued to challenge the government’s power to regulate on-air content, and went to court seeking to overturn a new round of indecency penalties proposed by the FCC, including a record $3.3 million dollar sanction against the CBS teen drama, “Without a Trace.”
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