| house Brent Bozell III, president of the Parents Television Council, a conservative advocacy group
Bills have been introduced in both houses of Congress that would increase the fines that the commission may levy for indecency from $27,500 to $275,000 gov
Parents Television Council: http://www NFL, TV Execs to Testify on Capitol Hill
Feb 11, 2:32 AM EST
A House panel looking into indecency on the airwaves was hearing Wednesday from National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Mel Karmazin, president of Viacom Inc gov
House Energy and Commerce Committee: http://energycommerce â€â€? owner of both CBS, which aired Janet Jackson's breast-baring Super Bowl halftime show, and MTV, which produced the show senate parentstv The commissioners have discussed fining broadcasters for each prohibited utterance rather than for each program
"CBS gave everyone on the FCC, everyone in Congress, every parents' organization, every parent a slap in the face and said, 'Go to hell,'" said L "
All five commissioners criticized the Super Bowl broadcast, and the FCC launched an investigation at the behest of Michael Powell, the commission's chief fcc "Everybody has got egg on their face "
While criticizing Viacom, Congress last month voted to allow the company to own more television stations
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All five members of the Federal Communications Commission also were expected to testify before the House Energy and Commerce telecommunications subcommittee and at a separate hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee Bowing to a veto threat from President Bush, lawmakers agreed to let companies like Viacom own television stations reaching 39 percent of the viewing public, up from 35 percent
But the Super Bowl incident was expected to be a major focus of Wednesday's hearings
It's not only the commissioners that are angry
The Super Bowl incident occurred at a time when lawmakers are pressing the FCC to crack down on indecent programming
The commission is considering whether to overrule the bureau in that case
The FCC says it has stepped up enforcement of indecency rules
The agency has received more than 200,000 complaints about the halftime show, which ended with singer Justin Timberlake tearing off part of Jackson's top and exposing her right breast to millions of TV viewers gov
Senate Commerce Committee: http://commerce
"They knew that this was beneath the standards, including CBS running some lewd and crude commercials during the Super Bowl," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas
Last month, the FCC proposed a record $755,000 fine against Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio station chain, for the "Bubba the Love Sponge" program aired on four of its Florida outlets
"The wake-up alarm went off at the FCC," Bozell said org
But the agency's enforcement bureau in December declined to fine NBC for airing an expletive uttered by rock star Bono during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards show "Now what you're seeing are the commissioners taking a very strong public position on this |