CWA: Stevens’ Indecency Hearings—A Bridge to Hollywood at Public Expense     12/13/2005

Washington, D.C.—Concerned Women for America (CWA) laments the announcement yesterday by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) that he believes cable operators’ voluntary adoption of family packages, or tiers, combined with simplified TV ratings, would obviate the need for legislation, at least in the short term.

After a second hearing on the subject of indecency on cable TV by the Senate Commerce Committee, which Stevens chairs, Stevens said, “I believe it will be and, if it is, as far as I'm concerned, that will be the end of [legislation].”

Stevens also said he didn't see any of the four indecency-related bills, including boosting indecency fines and enforcement, which have been stalled in his committee, going forward. “As far as I'm concerned, none of them have enough support for us to move as long as this process works,” Stevens said, as quoted in Broadcasting and Cable (December 12, 2005).

“It’s obvious that Stevens’ ‘hearings’ were never intended to be anything more than a bridge to the Hollywood village responsible for creating trash TV programming,” said Jan LaRue, CWA’s Chief Counsel. “Instead of true cable choice, Stevens thinks Americans will be satisfied paying for a family tier with a Jack Valente-created MPAA rating system that might be fit for the Manson family. And unless the Senate passes a broadcast decency bill that significantly increases fines, as the House has done, the small fines that the FCC is able to impose on violators won’t have any deterrent effect on an industry making billions from polluting the public TV and radio airwaves, and American homes and kids.”

Stevens also told reporters that he did not expect a family tier to cost more than expanded basic cable packages.

“Whether a ‘family-friendly tier’ costs the same or less isn’t the only issue,” said Lanier Swann, CWA’s Director of Government Relations. “It’s the fact that the people who pay for it have no choice in selecting what’s in the tier. Americans need to contact Sen. Stevens’ Committee office and let him know this isn’t an acceptable choice.”

For Information Contact:
Demi Bardsley
(202) 309-5978
media.cwfa.org

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