House Judiciary Courts Subcommittee Chmn. Smith (R-Tex.) used his...
House Judiciary Courts Subcommittee Chmn. Smith (R-Tex.) used his weekly column to denounce profane language and the FCC’s preliminary decision not to levy fines against affiliates that aired the Golden Globe awards in Jan., which included a vulgar comment…
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by rock singer Bono (CD Jan 2 p4). Smith is the lone co-sponsor of HR-3687, introduced by Rep. Ose (R-Cal.) at the end of last year, that effectively would ban profane language from broadcast TV. In a column offered to district papers, Smith took issue with the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s determination that Bono’s use of the “F-word” was out of the Commission’s enforcement jurisdiction since he used it as an adjective in a non-sexual vein. “Since the FCC believes the law isn’t strong enough to stop harmful, indecent and profane language from being broadcast, we must strengthen the law,” Smith said. He said the bill didn’t raise constitutional issues since the Supreme Court had ruled (in the Pacifica case) that broadcast’s unique accessibility to children allowed more First Amendment restrictions on broadcasters. “Unfortunately, the FCC has given television and radio stations too much power to broadcast any type of behavior or speech that they believe will bring in high ratings and advertising dollars,” Smith said: “This undermines standards of common decency; harms the ability of parents to raise their children free from profane language and leads to a further deterioration of our culture.”