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American Morning
Interview with Rep. Chris Cox
Aired February 11, 2004 - 08:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Enforcing rules for broadcast decency may be a political football. But Janet Jackson's breast baring Super Bowl performance has Congress getting into the act. Not one, but two hearings are scheduled this morning on keeping the airwaves clean.
In just a moment, we're going to talk with a congressman who's going to be hearing testimony today.
But first, this report from CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Janet Jackson's fast flash has put laws to block such displays on the fast track.
REP. FRED UPTON (R), MICHIGAN: Enough is enough. It's been a race to the bottom. It's got to stop.
KOCH: Michigan Congressman Fred Upton's bill to increase fines tenfold for volunteers now has nearly 100 Capitol Hill sponsors. Most agree existing fines aren't working.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The $27,000 maximum fine is a joke and everyone knows it.
UPTON: And it's, you know, it's the cost of doing business. It's only a slap on the wrist.
KOCH: The Federal Communications Commission says it has more than doubled fines for indecency since 2001. But it admits it has collected in less than half the cases. As the FCC investigates the Super Bowl display, networks are censoring themselves. ABC may edit a sex scene for an upcoming "NYPD Blue" episode and an NBC producer is fuming over that network's decision to edit out a shot of an elderly woman's bare breast from "E.R." Such over reactions, he said, have "a chilling effort on the merit and integrity of adult dramas."
Some predict it will all blow over.
HOWARD KURTZ, TV CRITIC: Now everybody's going to be careful for the next few weeks, maybe even the next few months. But down the road, I think we'll be back to a lot of raunchy, sexually charged programming.
KOCH (on camera): If that happens, Congress may up the ante. It's considering a three strikes and you're out measure to yank repeat volunteers' licenses and take them off the air for good.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Mel Karmazin, the head of Viacom, and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will be among those who are testifying this morning during the House hearing.
Congressman Chris Cox sits on the House Telecommunications Subcommittee and he joins us from the Capitol this morning.
Nice to see you.
Thanks for being with us.
REP. CHRIS COX (R), CALIFORNIA: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of where you think we are sort of as a society today. Two hundred thousand people registered complaints after the Super Bowl half time show. Do you think we've sort of reached this new low?
COX: Well, each day seems to bring a new low. The Congress has been investigating the FCC's enforcement of these rules and laws before the Super Bowl. We've had a hearing already on this topic. Today's hearing will be our second hearing. So now that 100 million people got to find out what everybody else is talking about, I think the pace of legislative action is quickening.
But the real question is not whether people should, on the one hand, have artistic license, or, on the other hand, as viewers, who have the right to watch whatever they want. Rather, it's on the public airwaves, which the taxpayers give to broadcasters for free, should there be a space, should there be a time of the day where you can avoid seeing this if you don't want to watch it?
People are being inundated with things they simply don't want. We've got a great opportunity with cable television, with hundreds of channels, with now digital expansion of the broadcast spectrum, for people to get exactly what they want. But we don't want people to be forced to watch what they don't wish to see.
O'BRIEN: As I mentioned just a moment ago, Paul Tagliabue, who is the NFL commissioner, is going to be testifying today.
What do you want to hear from him?
COX: Well, obviously he's going to express concerns. He's going to say this is not what the NFL had in mind, things got out of control here. And we're going to hear about a whole system, a whole process that has been driven, seemingly negligently, over the cliff.
O'BRIEN: We have mentioned that NBC is just one example of cutting out a two second shot of an 80-year-old woman's breast from a scene in "E.R." And some people have said that's artistic, that's appropriate.
And how do you find the balance of what's going too far and what's appropriate in an emergency room drama?
COX: Well, obviously, that's not the kind of thing that people are going to write in about or maybe you get letters on any topic. But in the main, that's not what people are concerned about. People are concerned about the raunch, about the shock jocks, about, you know, A.M. radio, that used to be safe for kids to listen to. Now you don't want them anywhere near it.
The whole point here is that while we do have some businesses, many businesses in telecommunications paying for their broadcast spectrum, we also have over the air broadcasting of television and radio completely subsidized by the taxpayers. This is a big gift from the taxpayers to profit making businesses. And in return, they owe something to the community.
O'BRIEN: So then what's the solution? Is it self-regulation? Is it upping that fine from $27,000, which some people think is just a big joke, to 10 times that?
COX: The FCC's chairman, Michael Powell, has asked Congress for this tenfold increase because he thinks that today's statutory fine levels are about 10 percent of what they ought to be. In addition, the cap on the cumulative fines that could be levied would be raised to $3 million. That might get close to the range where somebody who's selling for a living would notice it.
O'BRIEN: Three million dollars might actually hurt in the pocketbook.
Congressman Chris Cox joining us this morning.
COX: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it.
COX: You bet, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 11, 2004 - 08:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Enforcing rules for broadcast decency may be a political football. But Janet Jackson's breast baring Super Bowl performance has Congress getting into the act. Not one, but two hearings are scheduled this morning on keeping the airwaves clean.
In just a moment, we're going to talk with a congressman who's going to be hearing testimony today.
But first, this report from CNN's Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Janet Jackson's fast flash has put laws to block such displays on the fast track.
REP. FRED UPTON (R), MICHIGAN: Enough is enough. It's been a race to the bottom. It's got to stop.
KOCH: Michigan Congressman Fred Upton's bill to increase fines tenfold for volunteers now has nearly 100 Capitol Hill sponsors. Most agree existing fines aren't working.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The $27,000 maximum fine is a joke and everyone knows it.
UPTON: And it's, you know, it's the cost of doing business. It's only a slap on the wrist.
KOCH: The Federal Communications Commission says it has more than doubled fines for indecency since 2001. But it admits it has collected in less than half the cases. As the FCC investigates the Super Bowl display, networks are censoring themselves. ABC may edit a sex scene for an upcoming "NYPD Blue" episode and an NBC producer is fuming over that network's decision to edit out a shot of an elderly woman's bare breast from "E.R." Such over reactions, he said, have "a chilling effort on the merit and integrity of adult dramas."
Some predict it will all blow over.
HOWARD KURTZ, TV CRITIC: Now everybody's going to be careful for the next few weeks, maybe even the next few months. But down the road, I think we'll be back to a lot of raunchy, sexually charged programming.
KOCH (on camera): If that happens, Congress may up the ante. It's considering a three strikes and you're out measure to yank repeat volunteers' licenses and take them off the air for good.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Mel Karmazin, the head of Viacom, and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will be among those who are testifying this morning during the House hearing.
Congressman Chris Cox sits on the House Telecommunications Subcommittee and he joins us from the Capitol this morning.
Nice to see you.
Thanks for being with us.
REP. CHRIS COX (R), CALIFORNIA: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of where you think we are sort of as a society today. Two hundred thousand people registered complaints after the Super Bowl half time show. Do you think we've sort of reached this new low?
COX: Well, each day seems to bring a new low. The Congress has been investigating the FCC's enforcement of these rules and laws before the Super Bowl. We've had a hearing already on this topic. Today's hearing will be our second hearing. So now that 100 million people got to find out what everybody else is talking about, I think the pace of legislative action is quickening.
But the real question is not whether people should, on the one hand, have artistic license, or, on the other hand, as viewers, who have the right to watch whatever they want. Rather, it's on the public airwaves, which the taxpayers give to broadcasters for free, should there be a space, should there be a time of the day where you can avoid seeing this if you don't want to watch it?
People are being inundated with things they simply don't want. We've got a great opportunity with cable television, with hundreds of channels, with now digital expansion of the broadcast spectrum, for people to get exactly what they want. But we don't want people to be forced to watch what they don't wish to see.
O'BRIEN: As I mentioned just a moment ago, Paul Tagliabue, who is the NFL commissioner, is going to be testifying today.
What do you want to hear from him?
COX: Well, obviously he's going to express concerns. He's going to say this is not what the NFL had in mind, things got out of control here. And we're going to hear about a whole system, a whole process that has been driven, seemingly negligently, over the cliff.
O'BRIEN: We have mentioned that NBC is just one example of cutting out a two second shot of an 80-year-old woman's breast from a scene in "E.R." And some people have said that's artistic, that's appropriate.
And how do you find the balance of what's going too far and what's appropriate in an emergency room drama?
COX: Well, obviously, that's not the kind of thing that people are going to write in about or maybe you get letters on any topic. But in the main, that's not what people are concerned about. People are concerned about the raunch, about the shock jocks, about, you know, A.M. radio, that used to be safe for kids to listen to. Now you don't want them anywhere near it.
The whole point here is that while we do have some businesses, many businesses in telecommunications paying for their broadcast spectrum, we also have over the air broadcasting of television and radio completely subsidized by the taxpayers. This is a big gift from the taxpayers to profit making businesses. And in return, they owe something to the community.
O'BRIEN: So then what's the solution? Is it self-regulation? Is it upping that fine from $27,000, which some people think is just a big joke, to 10 times that?
COX: The FCC's chairman, Michael Powell, has asked Congress for this tenfold increase because he thinks that today's statutory fine levels are about 10 percent of what they ought to be. In addition, the cap on the cumulative fines that could be levied would be raised to $3 million. That might get close to the range where somebody who's selling for a living would notice it.
O'BRIEN: Three million dollars might actually hurt in the pocketbook.
Congressman Chris Cox joining us this morning.
COX: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for being with us.
Appreciate it.
COX: You bet, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
