Senate action draws widespread support

The NAB was quick to denounce the Senate DoD rider which increased indecency fines and undid the FCC's 6/2/03 broadcast ownership rulemaking. Others, however, hailed the action - - or at least parts of it.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, who has been waging a relentless campaign to undo the FCC ruling, had his biggest victory to date. He said, "Last June, the FCC performed one of the most complete cave-ins to corporate interests against the public interest in the history of the country. The Senate, to its credit, has taken a series of strong, bipartisan actions to roll back the FCC rules. Today the Senate expressed itself again, in the strongest possible terms, saying that it wants the FCC's cave-in reversed and wants it reversed now. When the number of people and corporations who control what 293 million Americans see and hear in the media shrinks to just a relative handful, democracy suffers. It is clear that as media ownership is more and more removed from local communities, those owners become more removed and less in touch with local community standards. Increasing levels of indecency is the result. Today's action is an important victory for the American people, for efforts to strengthen standards of decency on the public's airwaves and for localism in broadcasting."

Whether Dorgan will still have cause to celebrate after the bill goes through the conference committee wringer is another question. Check out this from the Center for Creative Voices in Media: "Talk about a mixed bag. On a near unanimous voice vote, the Senate passed a bill increasing indecency fines nearly ten fold while at the same time rolling back the FCC's dangerous 2002 decision to allow additional media mergers and consolidation. Unfortunately, the smart money says that in a conference with the House, the indecency fines will survive and the FCC rollback will die - - the worst possible outcome for the public interest."

Watchdog Morality in Media was all for the indecency fine increase and mum on the rollback. "Yes, it's an election year," said MiM President Robert Peters, "but if sex and vulgarity in broadcasting were as popular as the entertainment media tells us, there is simply no way that 99 US Senators would have gone on record approving a ten-fold increase in the maximum fine for indecency."

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was pleased to see the scrubbing of a provision of an earlier version of the bill which would have put individual performers at risk for acts of broadcast indecency. AFTRA's Rebecca Rhine said, "This legislation, rightfully delayed as issues surrounding media consolidation and freedom of expression were more fully considered, reinforces the long-standing policy of the FCC to hold broadcast licensees-who control and profit from programming decisions-responsible for broadcast indecency violations. While legitimate concerns still exist about the possible chilling effect that large broadcaster fines may place upon free speech over the airwaves, we are gratified and relieved that the legislation avoids the pitfall of fining individual performers, announcers, broadcasters and sound recording artists." AFTRA also supported the FCC rulemaking rollback.

The Consumers Union was also all for the rollback. Said Gene Kimmelman, "The fight to repeal the Federal Communications Commission's lax media ownership rules scored another important victory today, as the Senate approved a suspension of the ownership rules as part of a measure to increase fines on broadcasters for offensive programming. Once again the Senate has demonstrated its objection to weakening rules that keep massive media conglomerates from swallowing up local media outlets and ignoring community values."