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Brownback comes back with a decent amendment

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) is putting the original seed of his becalmed Broadcast Decency Act of 2004 onto the must-get-action Defense Authorization Bill (S.2400). It would do what he originally tried to do - - raise the max indecency broadcast penalty to $275K. Brownback's early hopes for a clean bill were dashed as his colleagues in the Commerce Committee made the original a many-amended thing.

Sen. Conrad Burns is the only one with a modification on the Brownback amendment thus far - - he added instructions to the FCC to take into consideration a broadcaster's wealth and the size of the market in which the broadcaster operates when setting a figure.

"If every local affiliate that broadcast the Super Bowl was expected to pay a huge fine for a decision they had no knowledge of, we would see numerous small broadcasters go under and that's just not right," Burns said. The amendment I included will allow the FCC to look at a specific situation and use their discretion, making sure our small broadcasters in Montana and across the country are not penalized unfairly."

The amendment most often blamed for stalling the original Brownback bill was one from dedicated broadcast consolidation foe Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), who successfully called for a one year moratorium on implementation of the FCC ownership ruling of 6/2/03 in order to study a possible link between indecency and ownership consolidation. As of this writing, Dorgan had not attempted to add such an amendment to the Defense bill.

The Parents Television Council was quick to get on the amendment, organizing an email blitz of the Senate. "If we are to be successful in our efforts to reduce obscene, indecent, and profane broadcasts from the public airwaves, then the FCC must have the power to impose meaningful fines and/or revoke the station licenses of repeat offenders," reads a posted letter urging PTC members to contact their representatives. "Broadcasters are eager to sweep this national outrage under the rug so they can get back to the business of indecency as usual. Don't let this happen."