The Senate Commerce Committee has unanimously passed a bill to give back to the Federal Communications Commission authority to fine radio and TV stations for fleeting use of profanity. The bill,
sponsored by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D. W. Va.), is a response to a federal court ruling that held an FCC policy of punishing unscripted, one-time uses of expletives was a departure from precedent and
"arbitrary and capricious" under a laws imposes due-process requirements on federal agencies.
"This bill is a narrowly tailored approach that would allow the FCC to maintain its
policy adopted in 2003 and hold broadcasters responsible for airing expletives and indecent material, even if that material was only shown fleetingly," Rockefeller says. For FCC Chairman Kevin Martin,
the Senate's move "stated once again what we on the [FCC] and every parent already knows: Even a single word or image can indeed be indecent."
The bill does not affect cable channels, but
Rockefeller's staff is preparing separate legislation that would give the FCC the authority to further regulate what Americans watch on TV.
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