House bill would nullify controversial broadcast decency ruling

House bill would nullify controversial broadcast decency ruling

The Parents Television Council is backing a House bill aimed at restoring the FCC's ability to prohibit profanity and indecency on television during children's viewing hours.

Congressman Chip Pickering (R-Mississippi) introduced the bill in response to a Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that bars the Federal Communications Commission from imposing fines on broadcast networks that air so-called "fleeting" instances of profanity on the public airwaves before 10:00 p.m. His measure -- known as the Protecting Children from Indecent Programming Act (HR 3559) -- "requires the FCC to maintain a policy that a single word or image may be considered indecent, in enforcing its regulations concerning the broadcast of indecent programming over the public airwaves."

In a press statement about the bill, Pickering says three principles -- values, character, and faith -- constitute the foundation of the American family. "Not one of those principles is present in vulgarity or the indecency of an image, whether it is shown once or ten times," he comments.

Dan Isett, director of corporate and government affairs at the Parents Television Council, says the bill is needed because the American people expect a certain level of decency during the times when kids are watching television. "t's a preposterous argument, that the broadcasters are unfortunately making, that so-called 'fleeting' instances of vulgar or profane language shouldn't be actionable," he says. "[So] it bears mentioning that all forms of profane languages are, in fact, fleeting."

A similar bill sponsored by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-West Virginia) has been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and is awaiting a floor vote. Isett says quick action is needed because the fate of broadcast decency law is in the balance.

"You know, what's really at stake here is not the occasional bad word on broadcast television. What's really at stake here is the continued ability of the FCC to enforce the very minimal content regulation that we have on the broadcast airwaves prior to 10 o'clock," he says. "If you can't enforce for so-called 'fleeting profanity,' if that becomes okay, then nothing else in the indecency regime would be enforceable either."

Representative Pickering says his bill "will end the discrepancy of how many times it takes to claim [that] profane material [is] inappropriate and enforceable by the FCC."