http://www.newsrecord.org/news/2005/...p-889057.shtml
The News Record - Opinion
Issue: 3/9/05
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Nothing safe from censorship
By Stacey Cole

The decency police are on the move again. Two Republican lawmakers have
their indecency sights set on satellite radio and TV and they are hunting
for smut.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens and House Energy and
Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton have decided the government should
regulate satellite radio and TV as it does over-the-air broadcasting and
they are planning to press for legislation that does just that.

"Cable is a much greater violator in the indecency area," said Stevens. "I
think we have the same power to deal with cable as over-the-air."

These guys love to use their power to deal, and deal they will.

Howard Stern and shows like the Sopranos are going to be reshaped by the
long arm of the law if these guys have their way.

When Stern decided to leave over-the-air radio and go to Sirius satellite
radio, he believed the move would allow him more freedom of speech. He
thought the decency police wouldn't be able to regulate his language and
ideas on pay-to-listen radio.

Wrong!

Stern might get a complex. They hunt him down, or his indecent behavior,
wherever it runs.

The GOP used to promote less government involvement, not more. The idea of
legislating morality has become the permanent platform for many in the
Republican Party and it's growing every year.
Where does this stop? Or more aptly, where does this begin?

The top is a good place to look for the leadership of the GOP and President
George W. Bush has been very clear in his use of moral authority to wage a
war under false pretenses and to propose a constitutional amendment to ban
gay marriage.

While Bush takes on the world, these two Republican crusaders will do the
micromanaging of what we can hear and see on the home front.

Don't let this slip by, like Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

I will stand-up for the right to see and hear what is offered out there if
I choose to pay for it. If I don't want to hear it or see it I can cancel
my subscription.

Will the country snooze along on this one until we no longer have freedom
of speech and can't rally back with our words?

The chances are slim that this indecent proposal passes, but the money and
time these two obscenity overlords use could be spent on a few other more
glaring domestic problems. Let's see, hmmm, education, health care,
Medicare, Medicaid, the massive deficit, to name a few.

I really don't want my tax dollars spent on policing the pay channels of
the satellite and cable world.

I could use the cash to pay for my education or my old age or perhaps a new
Sirius radio.

Stacy is a junior English student. Contact her at opinion@nr.uc.edu