European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 29, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 a columns the stars and stripes wednesday August 29,1990 pc Ijames j. Kilpatric Public entitled to some discretion on airwaves two separate efforts to pro Lect children from the excesses of radio and to will be coming together this fall. One Effort launched by the Federal communications commission acis intended to protect minors from a a inc cent Quot broadcasts. The other launched by Congress would protect children from too Many to commercials. Under present regulations of the acc broadcasters May not broadcast indecent material Between 6 a a and 8 . On aug 6 the commission announced that it intends to enforce its ban around the Dock. The order will be fought out in the Federal courts. On july 23, the House of representatives approved by voice vote the Chil Drin a a television act of 1990. The Bill would limit commercials on children a programs to 10vi minutes per hour on weekends and not More than 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. A companion Bill passed the Senate on july 19. Under the Senate Bill $10 million would be appropriated to launch a National endowment for children a broadcasting. Otherwise the Bills Are substantially identical. The acc s 24-hour ban on indecent material makes sense to me. I have some reservations about writing commercial time limitations into statutory Law but the Bill authorizes reconsideration after Jan i 1993, two years ago. President Reagan vetoed a similar limitation Bill. This time around once the Senate a proposed Quot in Down Nentz has been sidetracked president Bush is expected to approve the measure. A a. A most broadcasters Are prepared to go along with the 24-hour ban on indecent material but a Lew freethinkers will continue to resist. Opponents contend that Only a negligible number of children listen to radio or watch to at night. The acc s ban they tear will have a chilling effect on adult programming. The commission s definition of Quot indecent is unconstitutionally vague. In any event according to the pc cd a statement of aug. 6, counsel for the objecting licensees believe that broadcasters Quot have a right to transmit indecent speech and listeners have a right to re Jim Fain have you noticed How sedely of late is booming More right win it conservative chive indecent if we were not talking about broadcasting counsel s formulation would be entirely acceptable. Of course artists actors songwriters and novelists have a right to create material that Many persons May regard As the first amendment to the Constitution protecting Freedom of speech and of the press guarantees such a right. But broadcasters have no right to be indecent on the Public airwaves. The controversy Over broadcasting exactly parallels the controversy Over Grants to purported artists from the National endowment for the arts. On their own Lime in the private marketplace artists arc free to do whatever they want to do subject Only to the risk of prosecution for disseminating Quot obscene material. The acc has compiled an impressive record a More to the Point a smelly and distasteful record a of the kind of broadcasting it would ban altogether. Here again newspaper editors face a dilemma. We cannot describe such plays As a Jerker Quot or such songs As a Penis envy Quot without offending readers. But without offending readers we cannot realistically convey what the argument is All about. Over the past few years the acc has cited a number of radio stations under the existing limitation. In december 198s station work in few York broadcast a morning Quot Christmas a part of the entertainment marking the birth of Christ called for hypnotizing the big Black lesbian Quot until she went a out of her mind with on a june afternoon in Cleveland the Host of a Call in show on station Wowe asked a caller a when he had his first at 6 50 . Station kid in St. Louis talked about fellatio. Oral sex similarly occupied a place on a show on Sjo in san Jose Calif. The acc imposed a $2,000 forfeiture on Klucz in Las vegas for broadcasting a erotic City by Prince and a $6,000 forfeiture on Kofi los Angeles for a talk show that interviewed a woman who got her jollies by masturbating her dog. It is nonsense puerile nonsense to contend that broadcasters have some constitutional right to put this stuff on the air. Hokum licensees do not own the airwaves in the same Way that newspapers own presses. From the beginning of broadcasting 75 years ago the Public has owned the airwaves. If a smut Loving american wants to watch an a rated movie or listen to dirty lyrics let him go to a record store. Plenty of this stuff is widely on Sale. Universal press Syndicate b Josh legacy depends on More than Gulf urls a Loi of Gulfon to about the Ivi Ehy pm a i j a. _ 1 Meres a lot of guff on to about the persian cull determining what kind of president George Bush will he. The a Denning moment a cry the commentators. A bit breathless from the exertion of manufacturing instant history. Quot de Hng moment is their name for a freeze Frame that lives a celebrity permanently in the history books. Vlam Julik ii Vinks Itu guv As when a receiver drops die winning pass in a super bowl. More often it does i. Kona Keagan and it mme Carter done to look at Alt now the we it they did in office. Line a resident Bush hasp i yet left any footprints hut to Ai Ifune his Mere in history Wilt he determined by happening m saudi Arabia is nonsense. Anyway Uei snot much to define. He a about As mysterious As Little orphan Annie and has been around almost a Long. I experienced Hur caucus he s at his Best in crisis . Ood knows we be had enough practice at that Over die last is yeas s. By now. A president can pretty Nuhi go by die Hook. I hat s How Bush kept this snorkel above water in Panama. It s wot King for him now m saudi Arabia. Quot a. Sincli v ensures urn stud come under the a came of tidy Iivo up m i s t a k c i. K kid my out Sei v exit a Hue we created like Noriega. Insuring an Oil Supply that after the last crisis we should have handled through conservation and alternate sources. The critical longer Range issues Are not Bush a bag he has the attention Span of an adolescent a and the same need to be frenetically Bush like a teen aged girl Home Tor the summer after her freshman year. Constantly on the phone fearful there May be five minutes of the next 24 hours in which there s no Golf dinner guests or economic Summit scheduled. He sutters a curious insecurity perhaps from Oxer demanding parents. His desperation to please is on View in his St. Vitus body language his spastic swim Many Ted this endearing h makes him Down Home and \ Ulner ahle. Hews not a Man it com action or ideas. He this from one Mission to the next with total determination Llull i we to protect the Oit Supply in something he understands. Dealing wish to Security problems of the �?T90s is an impenetrable inns Kiy. Be Buddug competitive Nev it. Curing the Delict mobilizing to the environment Are wond his swipe. Quot a crisis Dren perhaps the future of the species. Security increasingly is an economic not a military problem As a legacy of the cold War and reaganomics we confront the next millennium with a rundown Industrial machine decayed highways railroads inner cities and Bridges a galloping disaster of an educational system. To put All this straight Well have to restore a More equitable society if not for fairness and Justice then from deeply held self interest. There a no other was effectively to combat drugs crime and illiteracy. To produce a Gratifying Quality of life for All it s Essen tial to lilt the underclass by giving Hope education and health to its children. Bush has no vision of these matters nor indeed a philosophy beyond the country club mindset of the banker republicans among whom he grew up. Yet these matters riot leftover foreign grass fires almost surely will Detiner him Lor historians. Cox service to l a Iheme Are survival i hem w it do in pm i be the vii1�?T Wick. How to meet in cur grub Nihil 1 he opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government
