The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that would allow for fines of up to $500,000 to be levied against broadcasters who show/play “indecent” material. This bill is, of course, intended to protect innocent, freedom-loving Americans from the horrors of sexuality and rough language being forced upon them by the Evil Media.
From the linked Washington Post article:
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), not only would increase the maximum fine by more than a factor of 10, it would also allow the FCC to raise the penalty it can levy on performers who commit indecent acts from $11,000 to $500,000. It also mandates a license-revocation hearing after a broadcaster’s third offense and orders the FCC to move faster on processing viewer and listener indecency complaints, imposing what Upton calls a 180-day “shot clock” on the agency.
Let’s leave aside for the moment the fact that the definition of “indecency” is left completely up in the air (and therefore open to whatever interpretation the Christian Morality Police choose to appy). Rather, let us consider that the same Republican party that, in the name of the free market and the evils of government regulation, falls all over itself to prevent any sort of limits on media consolidation sees nothing wrong with the government they were just pillorying telling the public what it should and shouldn’t read, watch, and listen to.