Joe Pitts: “families are tired of having to cover their children's eyes and ears every time they turn on the television. Many…”

“families are tired of having to cover their children's eyes and ears every time they turn on the television. Many parents' standards of common decency are repeatedly offended and their parenting is undermined by the onslaught of indecent material on television and radio. Frankly they have been outraged recently by the examples of filth permitted on the airwaves by the FCC. Just as the majority leader said yesterday, if the industry cannot police itself, Congress must step in. The FCC has been entrusted with enforcing our Federal decency laws and should be expected to do so. There are plenty of laws on the books regarding this matter and the FCC just needs to enforce them. Today the Committee on Energy and Commerce will mark up a bill which allows the FCC to enforce tougher penalties on broadcasters for violations of the law. The privilege of conducting business over the airwaves should always be conditional on their willingness to adhere to standards of common decency. Broadcast airwaves belong to the American people, not to the networks. It is time for Congress to defend and protect America's parents and children and pass a tough bill to ensure decency on the airwaves.”