Political Quotes

“I am pleased that amendment No. 3457 was accepted by unanimous consent in the Senate today. While I fully support the underlying Brownback legislation, I have offered a second- degree amendment to protect the interests of small broadcasters who should not be punished for events outside of their control. The amendment agreed upon simply calls on the FCC to consider the size of the stations in question as well as whether they had anything to do with producing the offensive content in question. I applaud the efforts of my colleague from Kansas, Mr. Brownback, for his leadership on the issue of broadcast decency, and I am fully supportive of his legislation. This legislation gives the Federal Communications Commission the tools they need to go after those responsible for exposing our children to indecent material. With the recent trend of indecent events in the media, it is time to raise the current fine levels in order to prompt stations to more carefully screen their programming. These higher fines are appropriate for most stations. However, if the fines are too high for a local Montana broadcaster, it could well force them to close up shop. In Montana, we have numerous stations that are so marginally profitable that the only reason they remain on the air is because the good citizens of their communities refuse to let them go dark.…”