Under a proposal by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the FCC could fine broadcasters up to $500,000 per violation. The bill includes a provision that, after three violations, a broadcaster must have a license revocation hearing. Also, it would enable the FCC to fine performers up to $500,000 for willfully violating the agency's indecency rules. Finally, Upton's bill would force the FCC to complete each indecency investigation within 180 days. Members plan to begin reviewing and marking up the proposed legislation today.
Sens. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) introduced a version that would raise the maximum fine to $325,000, with a cap of $3 million a day per broadcaster, to protect smaller broadcasters not owned by large corporations.
 
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"We must have punitive damages to give some teeth to the current fine structure so there will be meaningful deterrents to broadcasters who may air indecent or obscene broadcasts," Brownback said in a statement.
Citizen pressure to clean up the airwaves will continue in 2005, pledged the man who organized many of last year's complaints.
"We will continue this campaign and do everything in our power to shed light on the utterly incomprehensible polices of the FCC," said L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Parents Television Council, which monitors television programming and encourages its more than 1 million members to inundate the FCC with indecency complaints via e-mail. In the days following last year's Super Bowl, PTC members sent a half-million complaints to the FCC.
Last week, Bozell's group released the results of a study it conducted on one of its favorite targets -- MTV. The group studied the music channel's shows and videos aired during the third week of March 2004, when the Viacom Inc.-owned cable network was running its spring break programming.
The PTC watched 171 hours during the several-day period and found what it called a "staggering" 1,548 "sexual scenes" containing 2,881 verbal sexual references and 3,056 depictions of sex or nudity. It also found 1,518 uses of unedited "foul language" and an additional 3,127 words or phrases that were "bleeped out," presumably profanity.
"The report unfairly and inaccurately represents what we do at MTV day in and day out," MTV said in a statement. "This report takes things out of context for the sake of sensationalizing a tally and uses random fragments of dated studies to fulfill an agenda and misinform the public."
Bozell said his group will use the MTV study to push Congress to force the cable and satellite industries to adopt an "a la carte" pricing plan, meaning subscribers pay only for the channels they want because consumers should not have to pay for channels they may find objectionable, he said. He said he expects bipartisan support.
