Policing the airwaves

Both houses of Congress are now on record as favoring stiffer penalties for indecent programming on the public's airwaves.

Last week, the Senate adopted a bill 99-1 that sets fines starting at $275,000 for each incident and increasing to $3 million a day. Federal law and FCC rules prohibit the broadcasting -- from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. when children are most likely to be in the audience -- of offensive content referring to sex or excretory functions.

Recent incidents have resulted in paltry fines regarded as a mere slap on the hand for indecent programming.

The House already had approved a bill allowing fines up to $500,000. Differences between the higher Senate fines and the House limit will have to be worked out in conference committee.

While the nearly unanimous Senate vote would make it appear legislators were bent on sending a strong message to broadcasters, the fact is the big fines were part of a massive defense bill which already had strong support.

And there is good reason to wonder if the House and Senate measures combined will really have the intended effect of making scripts and on-air comments any less racy or disgusting. The government can only control over-the-air broadcasters. About 85 percent of the nation's 108 million U.S. households with television sets are subscribers to cable TV or satellite feeds, and that programming is not subject to any federal sanctions.

As a result, while on-air programs are getting trashier, cable-TV and satellite programs range all the way from exceptionally good movies and specials to tasteless programs to outright live sex shows. Just about anything is available -- for a price -- on today's cable and satellite channels.

While the congressional attempts to send a message to on-air broadcasters is laudable, the only real control anyone has over what their children see -- or what might be considered unreasonably offensive -- is the on-off button on the remote control. Programs that aren't watched don't last long.

The fact that so much gutter programming exists is because viewers are turning it on -- and keeping it on. There's not much Congress can do about that.