Bernie Sanders on Indecency and Censorship

[Armstead]

This is on his issues page. He is a staunch opponent of media consolidtion. But this is also a libertarian approch to actual government censorship of content.

http://bernie.house.gov/indecency.asp

Representative Bernie Sanders is extremely concerned about the growing trends toward censorship and authoritarian government that we are seeing in the United States today. Earlier this year, Members of the House and the Senate, as well as the new Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, expressed their desire to apply FCC indecency rules to programming provided over cable and satellite as well as material on the Internet. This move would represent an unprecedented expansion of federal power to control what Americans see and hear. Unlike broadcast programming, which is sent into people’s homes over the publicly-owned airwaves, consumers voluntarily sign up for and pay for cable, satellite and Internet service. Allowing the FCC to regulate these services would, in essence, permit the government to control what content people can buy—something that even former FCC Chairman Michael Powell says is unconstitutional.

Just as troubling is the incredibly vague language which defines the FCC's decency standards. This unclear language has already caused broadcast stations to self-censor material because they do not want to risk receiving exorbitant fines. Extending these vague standards to paid programming will cause controversial and cutting-edge programming will grow increasingly rare. If Americans want to watch The Sopranos, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, or other programs targeted to adult audiences, the FCC should not be able to stop them. If we start regulating cable for “indecency,” where will it end? Will it soon be “indecent” for people on television to criticize the President? Is that the far right’s definition of “freedom?”

In March of 2005 Representative Sanders introduced H.R. 1440, The Stamp Out Censorship Act. This bill, which has 20 bi-partisan cosponsors, would clarify that the Federal Communications Commissions power to regulate indecency applies only to material broadcast over the public airwaves and does not extend to cable, satellite, the Internet, or any other medium. This legislation has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.