5/03/2006

CWA Calls Bluff of U.S. Senators Who Claim to be Concerned About Indecency

WASHINGTON, May 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- Concerned Women for America (CWA) calls the bluff of certain U.S. senators who claim to care about indecency yet continue to ignore the demands of the American people to keep offensive programming out of their homes and increase indecency fines of offenders. While Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) made great efforts to pass H.R. 310, The Broadcasting Decency Enforcement Act, other Senators chose to disregard the wishes of their constituents and continue to stall this important legislation.

“We wholeheartedly praise Majority Leader Frist for pushing for unanimous consent of this great piece of legislation,” said Lanier Swann, CWA’s Director of Government Relations. “He has shown great leadership on this issue and we commend him for taking a bold stand for the desires of American families. We applaud him for heeding the call of his constituents, a call Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) continues to ignore.

“Sen. Stevens and other senators have misrepresented this bill and twisted it to promote their own agenda. Instead of making their concerns known--which we could have quickly clarified in the 15 months that it’s been stalled in committee--they decided to stall the bill even longer. The legislation’s main purpose is to raise fines for indecent broadcasts to $500,000 per offense. It will also fine performers who have a premeditated plan of engaging in inappropriate behavior and require a hearing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after a broadcaster’s third offense. Regrettably, some senators have disingenuously claim this means a ‘3 strikes you’re out’ provision, when all it means is an FCC hearing.

“Sen. Stevens has been saying all along that networks should be able to clean themselves up. Well, he was left with Easter egg on his face on Good Friday when the major networks decided to sue the FCC for their right to air slanderous language, including their right to say the ‘F’ word during the Family Hour. Now he says that we should wait for the educational campaign to run its course. I have news for the senators buying that stall tactic: We have seen this campaign before. It accomplished then what it is accomplishing now-- nothing.

“Our grassroots organizations have done amazing work calling their senators and demanding to get this bill on the floor. Because of their efforts, we are much closer to the passage of this crucial legislation. The grassroots must continue to contact their elected representatives and make it clear that we will stand for nothing less than clean, wholesome programming.”

Concerned Women for America (CWA) is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.