Body Blow for Martin in Violence Bill

BODY BLOW FOR MARTIN IN VIOLENCE BILL
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Sen. John D. “Jay” Rockefeller (D-WV), the Senate's most vocal critic of television mayhem, is just a few weeks away from unveiling a new bill designed to cut back on the all the primetime violence seen each week by millions of children. But the bill probably will not include language that would force cable companies to sell programming on a channel-by-channel basis, a provision favored by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin. For the past two years, Chairman Martin has been saying that mandating the a la carte sale of channels would not only allow consumers to lower their monthly cable bills, but also permit parents to avoid paying for cable networks they think are indecent, violent, or otherwise inappropriate for their children. Instead, the Rockefeller bill would restrict violent programming to late-night hours, most likely between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sen Rockefeller's decision to broaden the safe harbor to include indecent and excessively violent programming on both broadcasting and cable was probably the more conservative approach from his perspective. Courts have upheld time-channeling, though only with respect to broadcast indecency. Nevertheless, his bill is risky: Cable has never been regulated for indecency or violence.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6446771.html