January 31, 2005
Is Joe Liberman the Next Zell Miller?
by Liza Sabater
It's about effing time someone had the cojones to tell Joe Lieberman ( Senator Joe Lieberman: Home Page ) he's a tool of the Republican Party. As much as I hate the FCC, who is he to say what indecency is? By whose standards is he going to define what is acceptable or not for TV viewing? Am I going to be deprived from my ocassional bout of NBC.com > Will & Grace because the Parent's Television Council says it's one of the 10 most offensive TV shows due to its "gay content"?!
Check out this action alert published by the Parents Television Council
Senators Brownback and Lieberman Re-introduce Broadcast Indecency Bill
On Wednesday, Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican along with co-sponsor Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman re-introduced legislation that would increase existing FCC indecency fines ten-fold for a total of 325K max per incident. Twenty other senators have added their names to the legislation.
Similar legislation passed both the Senate and House last year but never reached President Bush's desk because House leaders opposed some of the amendments attached to the Senate Bill.
“The Senate overwhelmingly agrees that the FCC needs better tools to enforce broadcast decency laws - the original Decency bill passed 99 to 1 last year," Brownback said. "We must have punitive damages to give some teeth to the current fine structure so there will be meaningful deterrents to broadcasters who may air indecent or obscene broadcasts."
"In a media culture that increasingly pushes the envelope on sex and violence, the role of the FCC is to ensure that broadcasters do not cross that line of decency," Lieberman said. "This legislation gives the FCC more leverage to do its job by increasing the consequences of violating our broadcasting standards."
Additional Senate sponsors of the bill include Senators George Allen (R-VA), Jim DeMint (R-NC), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), John Ensign (R-NV), Michael Enzi (R-WY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), James Inhofe (R-OK), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Trent Lott (R-MS), Mel Martinez (R-FL), John McCain (R-AZ), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Rick Santorum (R-PA), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Craig Thomas (R-WY), and John Thune (R-SD).
A similar bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI).
There are 20 more signatures on the bill. Only two of them are Democrats, and they are both the senators of Arkansas :
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Welcome to Sen. Blanche Lincoln's Homepage
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Mark Pryor - U.S. Senator from Arkansas
Could this be a harbinger of what's in store if people decide to back Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Presidential Campaign?
What is more despicable than these three Democrats sponsoring this bill? The fact that not one of them has this bill adverstised on the front page of their official senatorial sites. Not even Senator Joe Lieberman has it annouced --and he is a co-writer !
This, of course, is one of a string of political moves Lieberman has executed during his tenure as a Democrat senator. They went under the radar then but now, at the moment the party is in crisis, he's come under intense scrutiny all across the bluegosphere. Which is why there are discussions at DailyKos and other sites on whether their brand of Reform Democrats should be looking for challenger to the Connecticut senator.
I think it's about time. The Democrats don't need another Zell Miller.
Posted by Liza Sabater in Civil Rights, Democrats, FCC, Free Speech, Government, Law, TV
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