'Huge fines' for US TV indecency

Tommy Vercetti

'Huge fines' for US TV indecency
US broadcasters could face fines of $500,000 (£273,000) for indecency after politicians overwhelmingly recommended a steep increase in penalties.
The move comes after widespread outrage following Janet Jackson's infamous breast-baring incident.

A new law had already proposed to raise fines from $27,500 (£15,000) to $275,000 - but a Congress committee has now voted 49-1 to change that to $500,000.

Full Congress and Senate must approve the law before it comes into force.

The vote to increase the proposed fines was taken by the Congress' House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.


Committee chairman Representative Joe Barton said: "Personal responsibility is as important a freedom as free speech.
"America's responsible parents seek to raise their children with a strong sense of responsibility for their actions - why should performers be excluded from this expectation?"

If the bill becomes law, TV and radio broadcasters could be fined $500,000 each time they air indecent material.

There has been a strong reaction in the US after several recent broadcasts - such as Janet Jackson's "Nipplegate" - caused offence.

Radio "shock jock" Howard Stern has been dropped from six radio stations owned by Clear Channel after the company said he conducted a "vulgar and insulting" interview.

Zero tolerance

The company also fired Florida DJ Bubba the Love Sponge after a sexually explicit conversation between spoof cartoon characters on his show.

Clear Channel, the largest US radio station operator with more than 1,200 outlets, recently adopted a "zero tolerance" policy.

At Wednesday's Congress hearing, Representative Albert Wynn, a Maryland Democrat, said the fines "would provide further incentives to licensees to better address these issues".

And Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, said they would "deter companies from pushing the envelope of appropriate broadcasting".

The full House of Representatives could vote on the bill as early as next week, while the Senate Commerce Committee is due to consider it on 9 March.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/3532089.stm

Published: 2004/03/04 10:21:47 GMT

I think the message here is that if you see a breast on television, get your gun and shoot it, you don't want your kids to be witnessing the evil that is the female anatomy.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i've given up any hope for the US, it's just ****ed up.

seamus

Complain about Ireland all you like, this shows there are far worse first world democratic countries out there.

I'm happy to stay put

ixoy

And that article is just one of the reasons I could never live in the US of A.

Lump

Oh dear.... what next, not allowed to show the face?


John

Stark

If babies feed off it, it must be bad! :eek:

Sleepy

Originally posted by Mordeth
i've given up any hope for the US, it's just ****ed up.

Welcome to the club. We've been in existance since the sixties ended...

Supercell

Would someone please think of the children!!

America seems to becoming more and more less "free", freedom of expression means you tow the line of the bible bashers and people with nothing better to do.

It honestly frightens me how America is becoming extremist by eu standards in the lack of freedoms their polititions seem to be making laws about.

bizmark

funny thing is they still think there the "land of the free"

Tommy Vercetti

I find it hilarious that when the breast incident was reported on the news here and in the UK, it was shown over and over again, and nobody thought anything of it (not that it was even a decent bit of tit anyway), and to think Playboy was still banned here only a decade ago:)

Capt'n Midnight

$ 1/2m = how many seconds of advertising during the superbowl ??

Also the bit about the show being dropped by clear - well that had nothing to do with the upcoming bill and an attempt to show self regulation.

The "moral majority" kinda oxymoron on both counts - not to mention the entymology is similar to Bolshovick

Venom

Originally posted by bizmark
funny thing is they still think there the "land of the free"

Americans will end up with less rights than any other western nation and will still consider themselves better off than any other country on the planet due to all there "freedoms"!