[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 63 (Friday, May 19, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4819-S4820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   BROADCAST DECENCY ENFORCEMENT ACT

  Mr. FRIST. I want to comment on a couple of issues and take advantage 
of the time that we have this morning.
  Late last night, in closing, we passed the Broadcast Decency 
Enforcement Act to address abuses and potential abuses in the broadcast 
arena and to raise indecency fines by a factor of 10.
  We told broadcasters in a loud and direct and unanimous voice--it was 
a unanimous vote last night: Clean up your act or face the 
consequences.
  When families are watching Sunday night football games, they should 
not have to brace themselves for a televised striptease. I am, of 
course, referring to Janet Jackson's infamous ``wardrobe malfunction'' 
during that 2004 Super Bowl.
  While this particular incident represented a new low in broadcasting, 
unfortunately, as all of us know who do watch television regularly, it 
was not an isolated incident. Numerous studies have shown that prime-
time network programming is growing, has grown, and continues to grow 
over time increasingly coarse, even during the evening family hour when 
children are most likely to be watching TV either by themselves or with 
their other family members or parents.
  That Super Bowl stunt was just the latest in the ever-worsening 
attempts to grab out commercial attention. It is obvious why this tried 
to appeal to a low, broad, very coarse common denominator--to make 
people look, and to make people look to increase those commercial 
ratings and thus end up accumulating more money.
  Between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m, when there is a reasonable 
chance that children are watching, broadcasters are required to keep 
television clean. The requirement is there. Families should be able to 
turn on that television during that period of time and trust the 
broadcasters to abide by the law. Broadcasters should know that if they 
cross the line the penalties will be serious. That is why this 
legislation is so important.
  Broadcasting has become such big business that, steadily, the current 
FCC fines have become a little drop in this sloshing bucket of profits. 
This bill, the bill we passed late last night, the Broadcast Decency 
Enforcement Act, will help change all of that. The fact is, airwaves 
are a limited natural resource that we, in essence, all own.
  In return for free access to this limited space, this limited supply, 
broadcasters are obligated to serve the public's interest. If adults 
want to watch adult material in the middle of the day, there are plenty 
of pay stations they can go out and purchase so they can see that 
material. And late at night, between 10 o'clock and 6 a.m, the FCC 
rules allow a safe harbor for material adults can handle but kids 
really should not be seeing. When they know kids are watching on free 
TV, broadcasters should not be able to shrug their shoulders, to look 
the other way, to disobey the rules.
  I hope to see the decency bill we passed last night become actual law

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and toughen those penalties. I hope TV becomes smarter, becomes more 
engaging. That is a task not for us but for the people who make TV. Our 
job as legislators is to protect those basic standards of decency.

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