Sen Rockefeller's Agenda May Up the Ante on TV Issues

Sen Jay Rockefeller's chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee could mean a Senate far more active on broadcast television issues, industry executives and public-interest groups say. But media executives yearning for a drastic change in terms of how the government regulates TV content may find the senator's positions on some obscenity issues eerily familiar. And they may find some of Sen. Rockefeller's ambitions to curb TV violence disconcerting. Sen. Rockefeller is a champion of expanding broadband availability, and in the current session he joined with then-Sen. Barack Obama to co-sponsor a resolution that called for creating a nationwide next-generation broadband network by 2015. That goal is expected to be included in an economic stimulus plan the president-elect is crafting to present to Congress.