Lieberman Considers Hearings on TV Sleaze 

Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., believes that the downward spiral of TV decency standards is "accelerating," and he is strongly considering congressional hearings on the recent reports that the major broadcast networks plan to break down the few remaining decency barriers. 
Long-standing taboos are to be obliterated in the fall prime-time TV lineup, with a full-scale attack on traditional values, according to reports in NewsMax.com and the New York Times. 

"I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein told NewsMax.com. "We don’t have any plans right now. But it’s been a longstanding concern of his. 

"I wouldn’t put it outside the realm of possibility that in the future he may decide to hold additional hearings to look at how the public interest standard is being enforced. But that [a full-blown Senate hearing] is one possibility.”

He recalled that the Connecticut senator had previously held hearings on the ratings system that supposedly distinguishes adult material from television fare that is appropriate for children. 

Lieberman’s first reaction to Sunday’s New York Times article, as relayed by Gerstein, is that "it’s not surprising. That’s the direction that the broadcast networks unfortunately have been headed for some time now. And the race to the bottom is accelerating.”

Lieberman, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee since the Democrats gained a Senate plurality, had sent a letter of complaint on this issue last year to the Federal Communications Commission. That letter, co-signed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., now Senate president pro tem, expressed concern about the lowering of standards and the harm to the public interest.

Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate in 2000, believes it is reasonable to question whether "the networks, in their outlook, are meeting their legal obligation to serve the public interest by putting on so much objectionable, inappropriate and harmful content,” especially "during the hours when a lot of kids are watching.”

Lieberman thinks it is irrelevant to argue that taking God's name in vain on NBC’s "The West Wing,” as anticipated this season, merely reflects reality.

"He understands that there’s going to be essentially objectionable or offensive language on television. The question is, are there going to be any boundaries? Is there going to be some line involved?” And what about influence on the children?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Religious Leaders Fight Sleazy TV Networks 

Wes Vernon, NewsMax.com

WASHINGTON - The major broadcast TV networks are likely in for a barrage of criticism from a wide range of key religious leaders next month.
Just as NewsMax.com and the New York Times were reporting that NBC, ABC, and CBS were planning to lower the barriers on decency in prime time, Family Action Council International was formulating plans for a "World Congress of Families” next month here in Washington.

Among the topics to be discussed are "Mores, Morality, and the Media - What’s a Parent to Do?”, "Countering the Cultural Assault on Children”, and (Is a senator from New York listening?) "It Takes a Family to Raise a Child.”

"It’s hard for me to believe that that’s a problem [the lowering of TV standards] in particular that will not be discussed,” Family Action Council General Secretary Maurice McBride told NewsMax.com.

Included among the speakers lined up for the event are Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Allan C. Carlson of The Howard Center for Family and Religion, Elder Ralph W. Hardy Jr. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Toward Tradition, and the Hon. Mokhtar Lamani of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to the U.N.

Among the lawmakers to speak will be Reps. Jo Ann S. Davis, R-Va., and John T. Doolittle, R-Calif.

Authors Dinesh D’Sousa and movie critic Michael Medved are on the program. The latter has been known for his searing critiques of lowered standards on TV and the movies. In fact, the talk show host and newspaper columnist will be the conference’s kick-off speaker for the Saturday session. The meeting will be on the House of Representatives side of Capitol Hill on Friday, Oct. 26. The next day, the proceedings move to DAR Constitution Hall.

McBride, an attorney, told NewsMax that he thinks the Federal Communications Commission should take an interest in network plans to race to the gutter. But he lacks faith that the federal government will do anything.

His own opinion, as a parent, is that "It’s my responsibility to monitor the media in my own home.”

Absent that, he says, the media have "have failed to provide any sense of confidence that they’re going to be doing anything” to correct the situation.

And the FCC "has its own challenges with lawsuits in respect to so-called freedom of speech issues.”

Not that McBride believes the First Amendment "actually covers those kinds of things, but certainly courts have interpreted it as such.”

"I don’t have any faith in the FCC to do any thing about it, that’s what I’m saying.”

And the argument that gutter language is more and more commonplace and is "reality"?

"Actually they’re correct in that. It is being done more and more.” It’s just that the Family Action Council official does "not look to the federal government” to correct that because they "have not indicated that they’re going to be tightening standards.”

Among the organizations backing next month’s World Conference of Families are the Beverly LaHaye Institute, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Family Research Council, The Howard Center, Toward Tradition, BYU Management Society, Concerned Women for America, Heritage Foundation, Southern Virginia University, and BYU World Family Policy Center.