The BDEA (Broadcast Indecency Enforcement Act), which passed
in the U.S. House of Reps last month, has finally reached the senate floor! As
predicted by many WFMU clairvoyants, some extra sinewy bones have been added to
the original BDEA soup, effectively elevating its caloric value to
infarction-triggering heights.
Yes, some silly silly people thought that it would be
prudent to not only increase the maximum fine for an indecent broadcast to half
a million bucks, but to also extend the FCC’s regulatory shadow far and wide
across the nation’s televised landscape. With a snappy title, "Indecent
and Gratuitous and Excessive Violence Broadcasting
If adopted, this new legislation would allow the FCC to
regulate violence on TV in addition to the tired rigamarole of sexual and
excretory references. As if that weren’t enough, the bill also drops cable and satellite TV
into the FCC’s open hands, subjecting these subscription services to the
same vague indecency standards in place for normal broadcast stations.
Additionally, the bill instates a barrage of new content warnings (lasting 30 seconds and repeated every 30 minutes of the broadcast!) for programs that walk the decency tightrope, and doubles the current required amount of childrens’ programming. We’re guessing (hoping) that the changes commanded by this bill are far too sweeping to be accepted by the Capitol tastemakers.
Read the text of the IGEVBCA as introduced to the Senate
Click here for an article summarizing the bill
That is the weirdest title. Hopefully this hastens our pulling out of all that voilent action in Iraq.
Btw, the loc link is a temp butchya can just go Tommy's 109th Congress search-a-majig, http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c109query.html, and put "S.616" in the Bill Number box.
A persistent link but hard to read pdf of the S.616 is here: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s616is.txt.pdf.
Posted by: pampelonne | March 16, 2005 at 02:22 PM