Bush Signs Bill Raising Fines for Indecent Broadcasts

As expected, President Bush on Thursday signed into law legislation that increases tenfold the fines broadcasters will have to pay if they violate the FCC's decency rules. At a signing ceremony, Bush remarked, "Broadcasters and the electronics industry must play a valuable role in protecting our children from obscene and indecent programming." Under the new law, the maximum fine is increased to $325,000 per violation from $32,500. Thus CBS's affiliates that were together fined $3,250,000 for airing a racy scene in Without a Trace would have been been fined $32,500,000 under the new law -- or about what it costs to produce all episodes of the series for an entire season.
2006-08-01 18:44:24