Rockefeller to Promote Indecency Bill
Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) plans to urge the Senate to take up his indecency bill (S-616) that would subject cable and satellite operators to indecency standards broadcasters face, an aide said Mon. at an NAB Legislative Conference. Rockefeller will push to include his bill in markup of telecom legislation in whole or “section-by-section,” Rockefeller aide James Reid said. He predicted the panel would vote this year on bringing cable and satellite “into the FCC’s regime.”
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The Rockefeller bill, introduced in March 2005 (CD March 18 p13), also would give the FCC authority to address violence on TV, plus cable and satellite. Fines for violations would rise from $27,500 to $500,000, with a cap of $3 million. The bill would double to 6 hours per week the amount of children’s programming broadcasters must offer. It would require the FCC to find a better way to guard children from indecency and violence after a 60-day review of the v- chip and other blocking technologies.
By forcing the indecency issue, Rockefeller could complicate efforts for consensus on a complex field of telecom bill issues Senate Commerce Committee Stevens Chmn. (R-Alaska) is weighing, industry observers said. “Stevens is not going to be pushed until he’s finished with these hearings,” said one observer, predicting a “difficult sell” to get any bill through Congress. Rockefeller’s “strong” views aren’t surprising, but he may have to settle for a bill that tells the FCC to file a report on the matter, the source said.
“There’s general support for curbing indecency on cable but applying the broadcast rules would raise difficult First Amendment issues,” said Paul Gallant, an analyst with Stanford Washington Research Group. “The violence portion of the bill would raise a question of first impression for the courts,” he said. Courts at minimum would need to “see clear evidence of harm to children in order to uphold an anti- violence provision,” Gallant said.
At stake for telecom reform are a shrinking legislative calendar and swelling difficulty getting floor time for bills, observers said. The Senate Commerce Committee Mon. had to postpone a Universal Service Fund hearing at the last minute to deal with a more pressing issue of port security -- only one example of how hard it could be to steer a bill through, even if House and Senate reach consensus on a telecom package. “The biggest stumbling block is ‘How do you find floor time?'” said an industry observer: “These Senate debates tend to go on and on. There’s going to be a lot of noise and fury, and what gets through will have to be something very targeted.”