Copps Calls Smut Bill 'Powerful Message'

COPPS CALLS SMUT BILL 'POWERFUL MESSAGE'
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps Tuesday said that last week's Senate passage of the bill boosting indecency fines tenfold sent "a powerful message." He said the fact that the increased fines "will now possibly be available to the commission obviously gets the attention of anybody who is concerned." Calling indecency a difficult and sensitive topic, he nonetheless said that there was "plenty for everybody to do" on the issue, beginning with the family, but including the industry, the Commission and Congress. "I think the family has the responsibility for understanding the tools that are available," he said in a press conference with reporters, praising industry efforts to help parents do that. "I applaud the idea that they are highlighting the use of new tools, trying to educate people on their use." But he said that effort "should not be to the exclusion of coming forward with other ideas for family-friendly programming and carrying through on the commitment that NAB and others gave about what they are going to do. We have been waiting two years," he said.
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