FCC to Fine Curses More Than Nuke Violations

DiZNoG writes "With Congress debating new higher fines for broadcast indecency in the wake of last year's 'wardrobe malfunction' and Howard Stern's antics, Rolling Stone has published an interesting perspective on things. Rolling Stone did a review of fines levied by other federal regulatory bodies, and has found the new indecency fines disproportionately large compared to other fines. According to the article, if the bill passes then 'for the price of Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction' during the Super Bowl, you could cause the wrongful death of an elderly patient in a nursing home and still have enough money left to create dangerous mishaps at two nuclear reactors.' The article further states the largest fine the Nuclear Regulatory Commission levied last year was $60,000, this new bill would allow broadcast indecency fines up to $500,000. Glad I keep my broadcast cursing to a minimum, now if I could only get a handle on those pesky dangerous nuclear mishaps."

Comments

Re:Useful Terms

[miskatonic alumnus]

You left out tits.

Re:Wrongfully Causing a Death?

[anthony_dipierro]

Wrongful death is what one is charged with in a civil case, murder is a criminal charge. As an example, OJ Simpson was found not guilty of murder but was found responsible of wrongful death.

Re:Thank You Right Wing Loonies

[DarkFencer]

The chairman of the FCC was appointed by Bill Clinton

Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell) was appointed as chairman by GW Bush in his first term, though he was made a commisioner of the FCC (but not chariman) by Clinton.

Satellite radio

[sdo1]

And stern's switching to XM anyway, which just shows that the problem isn't the cursing, it's using a public resource to broadcast your curses.

Make sure the FCC knows you want them to keep their grubby paws of satellite radio. The religious right are coming after satellite radio as well.

And it gets worse. The terresterial broadcasters are now saying that they won't be able to compete against satellite unless the FCC levies the same restrictions against satellite that they do on regular radio.

I'm a very happy XM subscriber and I'd hate to think that they might get sucked into this rediculous quagmire as well.

-S

Re:Write your congressperson.

[Idarubicin]

Even methamphetamines help the pharmaceutical companies. Who do you think makes methadone?

Strictly speaking, methadone and methamphetamines aren't usually related. Methadone is used in the treatment of heroin addiction. If you're looking for a (at least tenuous) link between big pharma and crystal meth, methamphetamines are tradiationally made from over-the-counter cold medications containing (pseudo)ephedrine hydrochloride.

So much for freedom of speech

[Handbrewer]

Ah, America - Home of the puritans.

In Denmark we can say anything we want on TV, and we do - i hear the word 'fuck' & 'shit' daily when i watch 'Boogie' a music show for young ppl that runs around 4-6pm. Primettime for the kids to learn new words :).

And travelling around europe, this is how it works most places, maybe perhaps with the exception of Germany (i wouldent have understood it if they used profanity anyways)

I thought puritans died out with the last victorians - but they just sailed to America it seems, heh.

But seriously, cant you sue the FCC for violating the freedom of speech? It would seem obvious that they are enforcing censorship.

Re:So much for freedom of speech

[Handbrewer]

Thats civilised in my book. If you have any reason to ban profanity, nudity and other stuff from TV, please paste links to the research reports indicating it harms anyone. Otherwise, f'ck off.

The legal age of drinking in Denmark is 16, we got less alcoholics than restricted countries such as Sweden and Norway, that has state owned monopolies on alcohol.
We got less teen pregnancies eventhough we educate people in sex from 6th grade, show them titties on TV etc.etc. Seems real education works better than advocating abstine
And we got one of the lowest crime rates in the world, and the country in the world where people feel the safest. Why? We must be doing SOMETHING CIVILISED that works.

Re:It's the FCC!

[sgant]

This isn't where the fine is levied...it's aimed at the guy that says the dreaded words over the airwaves. The broadcast corporation get's fined, sure, but the DJ or "on air talent" or whatever you want to call them is also hit with a $500,000 fine. These people, unless your Stern or Limbaugh, don't have that kind of dough. And the fine is per incident. AND the corporations aren't going to let the guy back on the air until he pays the fine...so he's screwed and the FCC and the religious right are all happy because they've "cleaned up the airwaves".

Re:Nothing really new.

[Waffle Iron]

His sentence is probably that long because arson in general has heavy penalties. Those penalties are in force because many times arson results in deaths of firefighters and/or innocent victims caught in the fire.

If he wanted to destroy some SUVs, he would have been smarter to use a method that didn't involve fire.

Re:It's the FCC!

[goon america]

Here are some more comprehensive numbers, courtesy yahoo finance

Market Capitalization by Industry:
Broadcasting & Cable TV: $503B
Motion Pictures: $24B

Oil & Gas Integrated: $1.6T
Oil & Gas Operations: $437B
Oil Well Services & Equipment: $253B
Natural Gas Utilities: $155B
Electric Utilities: $659B