Wednesday, January 14, 2004 Posted: 4:53 PM EST (2153 GMT)
FCC chief wants crackdown on obscenity over the airwaves Bono's on-air comment stirs cry for increased broadcaster fines
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FCC Commissioner Michael Powell said Wednesday he is calling for a dramatic increase in fines for broadcasters that allow the "F-word" and other obscenities on the air.
Powell said he wants the fines increased by a factor of 10 because Congress has not raised them in decades. Powell said the current maximum fine of $27,500 per incident was not enough to persuade broadcasters to watch their language.
"Some of these fines are peanuts," Powell told a National Press Club luncheon., according to a report from The Associated Press. "They're just a cost of doing business. That has to change."
His statements followed a controversial ruling from the FCC's enforcement bureau that the F-word uttered by rock singer Bono on television last year was not obscene.
During last year's NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes Awards, the lead singer of the Irish rock group U2 said "this is really, really, f------ brilliant."
The FCC's enforcement bureau ruled in October that the comment was not indecent or obscene because Bono used the word as an adjective, not to describe a sexual act. "The performer used the word ... as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation," the bureau said in an AP report.
Powell is actively campaigning inside the agency to get that ruling overturned by the full commission.
Powell circulated a proposed ruling to the four other commissioners on Tuesday. He needs the votes of two of the four to overturn the decision.
During his lunchtime appearance at the National Press Club, Powell said the trend toward crude language and behavior on television is increasing and that recently "a line has been crossed." He called the use of obscenity on air "abhorrent and reprehensible."
In particular, Powell insisted, "the FCC says it's not OK" to use the F-word.
He called for a continuing debate on the issue to find a balance between the First Amendment "and what our kids see and hear on TV."
The enforcement bureau had rejected complaints from the Parents Television Council and more than 200 people, most of them associated with the conservative advocacy group, who accused dozens of television stations of violating restrictions on obscene broadcasts by airing portions of the awards program last January, the AP reported.
Bono's comment last year on TV has raised a political ruckus.
Under FCC rules, broadcasters cannot air obscene material at any time and cannot air indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
In a letter to the Parents Television Council last November, Powell said the FCC needed to balance its rules against indecency and obscenity with the First Amendment right to free speech, the AP reported.
Some lawmakers have criticized the FCC decision.
Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Georgia, introduced a resolution that called it the "latest salvo in a string of decisions by the Federal Communications Commission that establishes a precedent regarding the use of universally recognized vulgar expletives on our nation's public airwaves," according to The Associated Press.
And Reps. Doug Ose, R-California, and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, proposed legislation that would ban five words and three phrases from the airwaves, the AP reported.