Breast Beating In Congress Over Indecency

Congress and the FCC are so beholden to Big Media that the “Broadcast Decency” hearings this week on Capitol Hill were themselves an indecency.

The highlights?
On proposing a bill to increase the fines to broadcasters who break indecency rules, the Chairman of the House Internet and Telecommunications subcommittee, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, was quoted as saying:

“We wanted to get to first base, and we did.”

On why the FCC’s enforcement division failed to cite Bono for using the “f-word” at last year’s Golden Globes:

Because he used the word as an adjective, not as a verb.

At least we can rest easy now. The networks have apologized, and given new assurances that they will police themselves. In terms of deterence, Congress has upped the penalty for an act of indecency to an amount roughly equivalent to the revenue of one commercial.