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Spike TV fined $50,000 for 'indecency' Johnathan Dough Capitol Bureau Chief In a surprise move, today, the Federal Communications Commission fined Viacom’s “Spike TV” 250,000 for indecency. FCC Chair Charles E Schoemer announced the fine earlier today, after complaints about the 1980’s shows “Miami Vice” and “The A-Team.” “Guns kill people and cause violence,” stated FCC Chair Schoemer. “We need to sense a strong and swift message to the world that guns are no longer welcome on television. Guns will no longer influence our kids. This proliferation of violence, decadence, and indecency will end and end now.” Schoemer, a Democrat,...

House Approves Stiffer Indecency Fines 2 minutes ago Politics - U. S. Congress By GENARO C. ARMAS, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Chafing over racy broadcasts like Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" at the 2004 Super Bowl, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday authorizing unprecedented fines for indecency. Rejecting criticism the penalties will stifle free speech and homogenize radio and TV broadcasts, bill supporters said stiff fines were needed to give deep-pocketed broadcasters more incentive to clean up their programs and to help assure parents that their children won't be exposed to inappropriate material. The measure, which passed 389-38,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - House members are looking to hit broadcasters where it hurts - in the pocketbook - to crack down on racy programming.

Lawmakers See Indecency Bill Moving Quickly 8 minutes ago Politics - Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to significantly hike fines for broadcasters airing indecent material will move quickly in the U.S. House of Representatives, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Wednesday. After a series of high-profile incidents on television and radio, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers has proposed boosting fines on stations and entertainers to as much as $500,000 per violation, up from the current $32,500. The measure would also require the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites) to decide whether to revoke...

Living room window not public, Supreme Court rules A man's home is his castle — even if he accidentally turns it into a neighbourhood peep show. A Supreme Court of Canada ruling Thursday found that a Nanaimo, B.C., man was wrongly convicted of committing an indecent act in 2000, after he was spotted masturbating near his living room window. The accused, Daryl Milland Clark, was reported to police after a neighbouring couple furtively observed him through binoculars for 10 to 15 minutes, then called police. “This is an important case from the perspective of defining a public place,” Mr. Clark's...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

A BRITISH man who simulated the murders of nine schoolgirls after drugging them while they visited his daughters was jailed for 18 years by a Hull court today. Former school governor Glyn Martin, 53, pleaded guilty to a total of 57 counts of indecent assault, child abduction, indecency with a child, administering noxious substances and taking indecent photos. The court heard Martin used his two daughters as bait to lure their schoolfriends into his house where he gave them tablets, which he claimed were vitamins, shortly before they went to bed. As they slept in a "stupefied" state he took...

Howard's end? The shock jock is almost dead on the public airwaves: One more indecency blunder and Stern is off. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The shock jock died Thursday on public radio. On Dec. 23, a portentous deal reached last month between Viacom, the owner of the country's second-largest radio station operator, and federal anti-indecency watchdogs went into effect. On top of paying $3.5 million to end several ongoing investigations of on-air public broadcasts, Viacom agreed to additional measures aimed at preventing future material deemed obscene, profane or indecent. If Viacom has lived up to settlement terms, Howard Stern has...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - Shortly before becoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission nearly four years ago, Michael K. Powell said it was time to eliminate the double standard that allowed the government to subject broadcasters, unlike their competitors in cable and satellite television, to indecency and other speech regulations. At the time, Mr. Powell received a Freedom of Speech Award for advancing what broadcasters and civil liberties groups viewed as a courageously principled position. Now, he is being harshly criticized for significantly expanding the indecency rules. He blames a quest for higher ratings for the "increasing coarseness" of programming...

Topics include ‘queer families’ ‘gays’ in sports and ‘heterosexism.’ Students in Newton, Massachusetts, will be treated to an entire day of pro-homosexual propaganda on December 15. “To BGLAD Day” features workshops and speakers who will make students feel good about homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism. “This is so incredibly objectionable,” Brian Camenker, who heads the Article 8 Alliance and the Parents Rights Coalition, said of To BGLAD Day. “The parents are so outraged that this is being pushed on their kids that they don’t know what to do. To use children’s minds this way without even letting the parents know is...

The Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau has asked NBC for tapes of the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics, apparently in response to one or more indecency complaints. It is unclear who may have complained or what aspect of the broadcast may have prompted a complaint, said the sources who revealed the request but spoke on condition of anonymity. An FCC spokesperson late Friday would not confirm or deny an investigation, but said the agency has recieved at least one complaint about the telecast. The Olympics opening ceremony on Aug. 14 in Athens included actors and actresses depicting two lovers...

ashington — TIME to take a deep breath. The high pitch at which many are discussing the enforcement of rules against indecency on television and radio is enough to pop an eardrum. It is no surprise that those who make a handsome living by selling saucy fare rant the loudest - it drives up the ratings. The news media further fan the flames, obsessed with "culture war" stories that slot Americans into blue-state and red-state camps.Overheated words, however, obscure what should be an important debate over two American values that are, at times, in tension. As one deeply suspicious of...

OH, the poor, suffering little children. If we are to believe the outcry of the past two weeks, America's youth have been defiled en masse - again. This time the dirty deed was done by the actress Nicollette Sheridan, who dropped her towel in the cheesy promotional spot for the runaway hit "Desperate Housewives" that kicked off "Monday Night Football" on ABC. "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," said Michael Powell, the Federal Communications Commission chairman who increasingly fashions himself a commissar of all things cultural, from nipple rings to "Son of Flubber." It's beginning to look a...

My wife and I are South Park fans and we watch a good bit of Comedy Central in general. Recently Comedy Central began airing a show called “Drawn Together” after South Park. We’ve watched it a couple of times and it’s pretty raunchy – lesbian and queer sex images/jokes, a cartoon pig that gets erections and urinates on furniture, a lot of sex jokes … pretty raunchy and not really the kind of show I have an interest in. The premise is that it’s a reality “Big Brother” type show except it’s cartoon characters. But I’ve seen pieces of it...

This is a critically important NEW campaign in the battle against TV indecency, and we need you to help us. Just a few days ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it will delay broadcast license renewals for 50 TV stations until after Indecency Complaints against those stations have been resolved. This is a HUGE new development in our fight against filth on TV, because if a TV station loses its broadcast license, it's out of business. It's THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT against a TV station for airing indecent programming. We're the Parents Television Council and we're taking our campaign to...

Obscenity is not encompassed within the phrases "freedom of speech" or "freedom of the press." There is no constitutional protection for obscenity, federal or state. Since this is so, Congress and the state legislative bodies may adopt laws to proscribe and punish those who manufacture, distribute, exhibit, or advertise obscene materials. Since no inroads are made by such legislation on protected speech, it is not necessary to look for a "clear and present danger"; nor even is it required to find a "compelling" or "substantial" federal or state interest to justify such laws. Unless the one challenging such laws can...

Coppell teacher indicted on child indecency charge Separate panel had declined to charge him with sexual misconduct 09:03 PM CDT on Thursday, August 5, 2004By MARGARITA MARTÍN-HIDALGO / The Dallas Morning News COPPELL – Just months after a grand jury declined to indict a popular Coppell High School teacher on allegations of sexual misconduct with a student, another panel on Thursday charged the teacher with indecency with a child by sexual contact. Courtesy Duane Masengill Duane Masengill, 35, had not been arrested Thursday, but a warrant was expected to be issued for his arrest by this morning. Indecency with...

Radio Giant In Record Indecency Settlement By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 9, 2004; Page A01 The Federal Communications Commission has reached a record-setting, nearly $2 million settlement with Clear Channel Communications Inc. that would clear the radio giant of all charges of indecency lodged against it, including on-air remarks made by shock jock Howard Stern, according to government and radio industry sources.

Support The DrudgeReport; Visit Our Advertisers KERRY SUPPORTS FCC INDECENCY CRACKDOWN; CITES 'FAMILY TIME' Fri Jun 4, 2004 12:32:11 ET In an interview set for broadcast Sunday on C-SPAN, presidential hopeful John Kerry says he supports the current FCC crackdown on television indecency, but comes out against the greater scrutiny of pay cable channels like HBO and Showtime. "I think there is a distinction between public broadcast and the notions we've had historically about family time, family hour -- and what you buy privately and personally." "I am not in favor of government interference and censorship and restriction of...

PTC Takes Viacom to Task at Annual Shareholder Meeting Over Deficient Indecency Policy New York, NY--- Today the Parents Television Council, the nation's most influential advocacy organization protecting children against sex, violence and profanity in entertainment, took Viacom to task at its annual shareholder meeting over the company?s paltry indecency policy. Despite many public announcements indicating the existence of an internal indecency policy at Viacom, the company continues to air raunchy programming on its Infinity, CBS and MTV owned media properties. Viacom also continues to fight every FCC fine handed down for decency violations. Today PTC President Brent Bozell and...