Broadcasters Fret over High Odds of Committee Vote for Indecency Bill
Broadcasters fear an indecency bill set for a Senate Commerce Committee vote today (Thursday) will revive a “chilling effect” the industry thought diminished by a June 4 appellate court ruling, said industry lobbyists. As of late Wednesday, the committee seemed poised to approve a bill (CD July 16 p13) that would let the FCC fine stations for airing a single obscenity or indecent image, said most observers we spoke with. The committee will mark up other bills, including one on phone-number portability and one on broadband access mapping (see separate report in this issue), when it meets Thursday afternoon.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Communications lawyers warned of the great distance between committee approval of the indecency legislation and full Senate passage, let alone House approval of a yet-to-be- introduced similar measure. One lobbyist said it may be down to the wire over whether the Commerce Committee approves the bill. Others disagreed.
“It’s going to pass,” said a broadcast lawyer. “Everybody kind of acknowledged that when the bill was introduced” last week by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Chances of passage seem high thanks to Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, and ranking minority member Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who agreed to co-sponsor the bill, said industry officials. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., also signed on to support the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act. It would require the commission to “maintain a policy that a single word or image may be considered indecent.”
The bill would nullify a decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, New York, remanding FCC policy of fining TV stations for airing “fleeting expletives.” Broadcasters fear the result would be fines levied against stations for airing a single curse word during a newscast or any program, said industry attorney Gregg Skall. For example, a radio or TV station could be fined if an athlete curses live on the air, he said. “It’s a matter of major concern,” said Skall. “The unintended fleeting expletive that the station can’t control has a real chilling effect on the ability to cover live news, live events.”
Even if the committee approves the bill, it still could die. Senate sponsors will be struggling to set floor debate given time limitations, said lobbyists. “It’s a high, high hurdle to get it on the Senate calendar and have it taken up for debate,” said a lobbyist. The absence of a similar bill in the House gives broadcasters additional cause for optimism. “Maybe it gets passed out of committee,” said another lawyer. “But that’s a long, long way from getting signed by the president.”