AP: Fines to Rise for Indecency in Broadcasts. Congress gave notice to broadcasters on Wednesday that they would pay dearly for showing material like Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction,” passing legislation that would multiply indecency fines 10 times.
Congress also gave notice — as if we needed it — that rather than deal with the real problems this nation faces (such as drunken-sailor spending that will bankrupt us sooner or later) it prefers to deal in trivial matters.
What Congress is also ensuring with this action is that anything remotely interesting will end up on satellite, cable or the Internet. Is the plan to kill broadcasting? Not a bad way to go about it.
But the affront to free speech is dramatic and alarming. The First Amendment is apparently beyond the understanding of our lawmakers. Shameful.