Indecency Enforcement Actions Confirmed

[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Last year, Americans filed 189,362 complaints with the FCC about television and radio programming they found indecent. That's more complaints than in any other year except 2004, when something like a million people complained about excessive nudity during a football game. But the FCC didn't issue any indecency fines in '05. Apparently, that's about to change, however. The FCC's media bureau officially confirmed Friday that it has initiated enforcement actions on complaints about indecency and profanity. A package of proposed fines and denials dealing with TV stations is said to be a mix that, taken together and signed off on by the commissioners, are meant to be a better guide to what the FCC thinks is indecent, though it will lack the guidance that the Bono and Jackson reviews would provide.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6300894?display=Breaking+News...
(free access for Benton's Headlines subscribers)

* Upton Urges Senate to Take Up House Decency Bill
In related indecent news, Fred Upton (R-MI), Chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, said,
I am pleased that the Senate Commerce Committee chose to have their first hearing of this New Year on the important issue of decency. Just over 11 months ago, the House overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation to raise the fines for indecent material broadcast over the public’s airwaves. Our bill is a common sense measure that will stand up to any court challenge as it does not change the current standards that have been on the books for decades. The Senate passed similar legislation 99 to 1 in 2004, and now is the time for the Senate to step up to the plate and deliver something of real value to families across the nation. The House passed bill, coupled with initiatives taken by the cable industry to offer family tier programming, will provide families a sense of comfort when their kids reach for the remote control. By increasing the fines for indecency to $500,000, the fines will be at a level where they cannot be ignored. The current cap for fines is $32,500 -- to put that into perspective, a 30 second commercial aired during this year’s Super Bowl will cost $2.6 million -- averaging more than $86,000 per second.
http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/News/01192006_1756.htm

* Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee Calls on Senate Commerce Committee to Act on Indecency Legislation Immediately
http://www.earnedmedia.org/cwfa01182.htm

* Horror episode too graphic for edgy Showtime series
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/entertainment/tel...