• Broadcasting & Cable, Wednesday, July 11, 2007 11:30 AM

U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, a right-wing Republican currently running for president, is pushing to give the Federal Communications Commission back the power to block dirty words on TV -- power that a federal court decision took away.

The Kansas Republican plans to offer an amendment to a finance bill that "reinstates the FCC's ability to prohibit the use of profanity and indecent images from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on broadcast TV, when children are most likely to be in the audience," according to the Parents Television Council. That would pretty much overturn a decision by an appeals court holding that the FCC policy of finding "fleeting profanities" indecent was unjustified.

The court had told regulators they could try again to justify the policy, but the FCC has not said what action it will take. Insiders say Brownback will offer up his amendment this week.

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