The Search for Decency

THE SEARCH FOR DECENCY
[SOURCE: Townhall.com, AUTHOR: William F. Buckley]
[Commentary] Criminal prosecutions under obscenity laws are as dead as slave auctions. But the FCC has this sliver of authority still there, because it presides over the life of inanimate things that don't "belong" to anybody. What they are is airwaves, and who makes rules about what can go out over these airwaves is Congress, which created the Federal Communications Commission, which says: "Look, we know, we know that 'The Sopranos' can have gangbangs and sodomy and anal stuff and so on -- but that's cable, and cable is privately owned. We have no authority over it. If some prosecutor wants to move against those people, why, let him go back to 'Deep Throat' and Mapplethorpe time, and good luck. Meanwhile, we intend to do what we can." Well, with the FCC's invocation of the Indecency Code, with the $3.6 million sting, is there one last chance to secrete good standards somewhere safe from the First Amendment? Or is decency no longer safe from the First Amendment? That's what we are supposed to find out.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/wfbuckley/2006/04/18/194210.html