West Virginia's 70-year-old junior senator is pushing forward legislation that would extend Federal Communications Commission control over cable and satellite content:
The long-awaited Rockefeller TV-violence bill will be introduced before the August recess, says Steven Broderick, press secretary to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). The bill would give the FCC the power to regulate violence on cable and satellite, as well as on broadcast.
It will also likely require the FCC to define indecent violent content, a call the FCC punted to Congress in a report it issued several months ago....
"We fully understand that the bill has a long way to go," says Broderick. "If it gets through the Congress and is signed by the president"-an admitted long shot-"we expect court challenges." Given the nature of this legislation, he says, "our job is to create a proposal we believe will survive."
He also is buoyed by the change in congressional leadership. A similar bill that Rockefeller introduced in 2005 did not go anywhere.
"Last time, Congress was under different management," says Broderick. "Times have changed, and programming on TV has changed."
He says to look for more hearings on TV violence in the coming months.
Reason on why giving the FCC the right to regulate cable and satellite (and hell, even broadcast TV and radio) is a bad idea here and here.