WASHINGTON (ABP) — Members of a House panel grilled a television executive and the National Football League's head Feb. 11 in a hearing on the lingering controversy over TV indecency at the Super Bowl.
The House subcommittee on telecommunications is considering legislation that would dramatically increase fines for indecency in broadcast media tenfold — to a limit of $275,000 per offense. Although the bill has been under consideration since long before the Feb. 1 Super Bowl, it has gained new attention due to the controversy that the game's halftime show engendered.
The game and halftime show were broadcast on ABC, which is owned by Viacom. The halftime show, produced by Viacom subsidiary MTV, featured several sexually suggestive pop-music performances. It culminated in a risquι song-and-dance duet between singers Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, in which the pair simulated sex and Timberlake ripped off a part of Jackson's costume, revealing her right breast.
While Viacom President Mel Karmazin said programmers were caught off-guard by the unscripted display, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) said the executive was nonetheless responsible.
“You knew what you were doing,” Wilson told the Viacom executive. “You knew that shock and indecency creates a buzz that moves market share and lines your pockets.”
While Federal Communications Commission officers told legislators complaints of indecency on television and radio have increased dramatically in recent years, Viacom's chief operating officer said increased fines would “devastate small broadcasters” and that FCC standards for indecency need to be clarified.
“That would be a huge, huge step,” said Karmazin.
But FCC Chairman Michael Powell said the FCC's definition of indecency is a side issue. “[T]here is no ambiguity with the indecency standard,” he told legislators. “It has existed for 30 years.”
Powell pledged to step up enforcement of indecency rules.
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