FCC Chief Wants Crackdown on Airwaves Obscenity

Bono's On-Air Comment Stirs Cry for Increased Broadcaster Fines

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FCC Commissioner Michael Powell said Wednesday he
is calling for a dramatic increase in fines for broadcasters that
allow the "F-word" and other obscenities on the air.Powell said he wants the fines increased by a factor of 10 because
Congress has not raised them in decades. Powell said the current
maximum fine of $27,500 per incident was not enough to persuade
broadcasters to watch their language.

"Some of these fines are peanuts," Powell told a National Press Club
luncheon, according to a report from The Associated Press. "They're
just a cost of doing business. That has to change."

His statements followed a controversial ruling from the FCC's
enforcement bureau that the F-word uttered by rock singer Bono on
television last year was not obscene.

During last year's NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes Awards, the
lead singer of the Irish rock group U2 said "this is really, really,
f------ brilliant."

The FCC's enforcement bureau ruled in October that the comment was
not indecent or obscene because Bono used the word as an adjective,
not to describe a sexual act. "The performer used the word ... as an
adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation," the bureau said
in an AP report.

Powell is actively campaigning inside the agency to get that ruling
overturned by the full commission.

Powell circulated a proposed ruling to the four other commissioners
on Tuesday. He needs the votes of two of the four to overturn the
decision.

During his lunchtime appearance at the National Press Club, Powell
said the trend toward crude language and behavior on television is
increasing and that recently "a line has been crossed." He called the
use of obscenity on air "abhorrent and reprehensible."

In particular, Powell insisted, "the FCC says it's not OK" to use the F-word.

He called for a continuing debate on the issue to find a balance
between the First Amendment "and what our kids see and hear on TV."

The enforcement bureau had rejected complaints from the Parents
Television Council and more than 200 people, most of them associated
with the conservative advocacy group, who accused dozens of
television stations of violating restrictions on obscene broadcasts
by airing portions of the awards program last January, the AP
reported.

Bono's comment last year on TV has raised a political ruckus.

Under FCC rules, broadcasters cannot air obscene material at any time
and cannot air indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

In a letter to the Parents Television Council last November, Powell
said the FCC needed to balance its rules against indecency and
obscenity with the First Amendment right to free speech, the AP
reported.

Some lawmakers have criticized the FCC decision.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Georgia, introduced a resolution that called it
the "latest salvo in a string of decisions by the Federal
Communications Commission that establishes a precedent regarding the
use of universally recognized vulgar expletives on our nation's
public airwaves," according to The Associated Press.

And Reps. Doug Ose, R-California, and Lamar Smith, R-Texas, proposed
legislation that would ban five words and three phrases from the
airwaves, the AP reported.