Transcript of Sen. Stevens' remarks on Internet "indecency" laws [fs]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[See the third paragraph... --Declan]


http://commerce.senate.gov/newsroom/printable.cfm?id=233399

Transcript of Chairman Stevens' Remarks on Decency Legislation

March 11, 2005

Question: On a different issue, are you still planning for the Commerce 
Committee to markup the Broadcast Decency bill and do you know when that 
would be and also are you considering expanding that to include cable?

Chairman Stevens: It will be as soon as we can bring it about and yes, I 
intend to try and level the playing field. I take the position that at 
the time the Supreme Court made its decision about cable, cable was just 
one of the ways for public access to television products. Today 85 
percent of the television that is brought to American homes is brought 
by cable and I believe that the playing field should be leveled. We have 
imposed this as a standard on local broadcasters. Under the law, we 
compel cable to carry those local broadcasters. But today when this 
indecency takes place, the people I’ve talked to call their local 
television station and say: “What’s this? Why should I be looking at 
this?” The second thing is, cable has situation where if you want to 
protect yourself, your children from that, you have the duty to call 
them and say how can I prevent this from coming into my house. We’re not 
going to censor cable. We’re just going to do, by the way, what the 
movie business does in the beginning – you read the ad about the movie, 
you look at it and it tells you whether its something you should take 
your children to. Why should cable insist that you have to call them 
because your children have already seen something that you don’t want 
them to see? Now, we are going to mark it up and I hope cable comes to 
its senses and understands that I think the American people mean 
business. I’ve got a thousand emails, what not, spurred by the cable 
industry. We got 10,000 from the public and I believe the public is with us.

We ought to find some way to say, here is a block of channels, whether 
it’s delivered by broadband, by VoIP, by whatever it is, to a home, that 
is clear of the stuff you don’t want your children to see. And, were not 
saying you can’t, you know, you can buy anything you want, I don’t care 
how they package it. If you want to pay for, you have a right to buy it. 
We’re not saying anything about purchases, except we’re saying, they 
have the burden to tell you what’s in it like the movie business does, 
not force you to expose your children first and then go back and say how 
can I get right of this stuff. I think they’ll come to their senses, I 
really do. I think the Congress means business now. I have not received 
many complaints from, I can’t think of any real complaints from Members 
of Congress about what I have been saying. They say right on, but do it 
right, and that’s why we postponed the markup until after the recess and 
we’re going to do it right and I invite cable to come in and talk. I’ve 
told them, we’re ready to talk. As a matter of fact, I’ve only been 
married for 25 years and I’m going on my honeymoon a week from today. 
Coming back from that honeymoon we’ll stop in at the cable convention 
and talk to them.
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