Curb TV indecency

When a dad sits down with his kids to watch a nationally televised football game, he doesn't expect to have to explain why a woman flashed her breast during the halftime show. Entertainer Janet Jackson did just this at the 2004 Super Bowl - the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" incident - prompting outrage across the country.

Conscientious parents who shield their children from raunchy cable TV shows were understandably outraged that such indecent fare would show up on a broadcast network televising the nation's most popular, family-oriented sports event of the year.

There are rules against this kind of "accident," but they don't amount to much - a paltry $32,500 fine. That's pocket change to a network. So to create an incentive for the networks to do a better job of policing their entertainment product, the House of Representatives last February overwhelmingly approved boosting the fine for an indecent incident to $500,000 - enough to get the networks' attention.

The House vote was 389 to 38, giving the legislation lots of momentum as it headed into the Senate. But apparently not enough. It's been bottled up in the Senate Commerce Committee for months. No one has directly spoken out against it, but the talk is that Hollywood - and its huge campaign donors - are concerned that their First Amendment rights are under assault.

Nonsense. Indecency is already banned on broadcast networks - the problem is it lacks enforcement teeth. The House bill gives the Federal Communication Commission the teeth to make the fines hurt. As Lanier Swan of Concerned Women for America says, "the American public would really like to see" this pass.

The Senate should stop stalling when it returns after Labor Day and approve this legislation as the networks' new season gets under way. Not to act would be indecent.