twistedlibrarian writes “WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Legislation to raise fines on television and radio broadcasters and individuals for violating decency limits to as much as $500,000 per incident won approval on Wednesday from the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The measure, approved by a vote of 46-2, would also require the Federal Communications Commission to consider revoking a station’s license if the broadcaster violated indecency rules three times.
The current maximum fine is $32,500 per violation.
Reuters “
Fines and self-censorship
The greatest problem I see is that it is going to force broadcasters to engage in even more second guessing and self-censorship just to protect themselves from fines. The loosers? Why the very people who own the airwaves of course. I’m certain that cable will pick up the slack, and also makes ya wonder how heavily the Cable industry lobbied to increase the fines.