Stripping cable: the war on "indecency".FREED FROM the fetters fet·ter n. 1. A chain or shackle for the ankles or feet. 2. Something that serves to restrict; a restraint. tr.v. fet·tered, fet·ter·ing, fet·ters 1. To put fetters on; shackle. that bind broadcasters using "the public airwaves," cable and satellite providers are able to pipe into our homes the indecent, gratuitous, excessively violent programming that all right-thinking Americans demand. Sen. Jay Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937), generally known as Jay Rockefeller, has served as a Democratic U.S. Senator from West Virginia since 1985. He was Governor of West Virginia from 1977 to 1985. As a great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. (D-W.V.) wants to change that. Rockefeller hopes to incorporate portions of his Indecent, Gratuitous, and Excessively Violent Programming Protection Act, co-sponsored last year by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Tex.), into a broad telecommunications bill the Senate Commerce Committee is considering. His bill would, among other things, increase fines for broadcasters who run afoul of a·foul of prep. 1. In or into collision, entanglement, or conflict with. 2. Up against; in trouble with: ran afoul of the law. indecency INDECENCY. An act against good behaviour and a just delicacy. 2 Serg. & R. 91. 2. The law, in general, will repress indecency as being contrary to good morals, but, when the public good requires it, the mere indecency of disclosures does not suffice to exclude rules, expand the Federal Communications Commission's regulatory authority Noun 1. regulatory authority - a governmental agency that regulates businesses in the public interest regulatory agency administrative body, administrative unit - a unit with administrative responsibilities to cover "gratuitous violence," and, most radically, subject "basic" and "enhanced basic" cable and satellite programming to the same content rules broadcasters must follow. Adam Thierer, director of the Progress and Freedom Foundation's Center for Digital Media Freedom, calls Rockefeller's proposal "the most aggressive censorship measure that could come out of Congress since the Communications Decency Act See CDA. (legal) Communications Decency Act - (CDA) An amendment to the U.S. 1996 Telecommunications Bill that went into effect on 08 February 1996, outraging thousands of Internet users who turned their web pages black in protest. ," parts of which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1997. Thierer says the new restrictions are not likely to be approved this time around. The telecom bill, he says, already is "so bloated that it would be difficult to pass even without the censorship provisions." Even die-hard culture warriors such as Sen. Sam Brownback Samuel Dale Brownback (b. September 12 1956) is the senior United States senator from the U.S. state of Kansas. On January 20 2007, he announced his intention to seek the Republican Party's nomination for President in the 2008 Presidential election. (R-Kan.) have expressed doubts that restrictions on the content of subscription services will stand up in court, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) seems content to take a wait-and-see attitude in the wake of cable companies' decision to "voluntarily" offer customers "family tiers" of programming. Since Rockefeller is aware of these political realities, it's tempting to see his push for a vote on his legislation as an exercise in grandstanding. Does that count as indecent or gratuitous? |
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