CWA Hails Senate Action Addressing Cable Choice, Indecency Issues
by Bill Fancher
January 19, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The Senate Commerce Committee has opened hearings today (Jan. 19) on a new bill aimed at cracking down on indecency, and a spokesperson for Concerned Women for America (CWA) says that group is glad to see the committee members finally taking action.Lanier Swann, CWA's Director of Government Relations, notes that getting the proposed legislation this far has been a long but worthwhile process. "We're really looking forward to finally seeing some leadership from a committee that has allowed the indecency issue to stall for more than a year," she says.
The indecency regulation bill passed the House almost a year ago with "virtually no opposition," Swann points out, "and yet it's been completely hijacked in the Senate, and we've seen nothing happen since." It has been almost two years since singer Janet Jackson's Super Bowl halftime show "wardrobe malfunction," the CWA representative adds, and yet she contends Congress still has done nothing to clean up television and radio broadcasting.
The bill now before the Senate Commerce Committee would increase fines and penalties to broadcasters who air indecent programming. Swann says CWA is expecting the lawmakers to take substantial action on the measure and is "just really looking forward to having a victory for the American families in passing [legislation on] such an important issue. We truly hope that we'll see some movement at the end of this hearing."
Several groups will testify before the committee on the need for the cable industry to offer a la carte cable programming. This option would give customers the choice to pay only for the specific cable channels they want to view rather than an arbitrary bundling of channels that might include indecent or "adult" programming.
CWA is encouraging the Senate to act decisively when it takes up the issue of cable monopolies and the rampant problem of indecent and family-unfriendly cable content. The group is also urging the legislators to address several key questions, including how cable companies justify forcing cable customers to subsidize programming they find offensive even as they are forced to block the offending channels from coming unwelcome into their homes.
Bill Fancher, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
