Rep. Jeff Fortenberry co-sponsored legislation Thursday designed to make television programming options more family-friendly.
DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Wednesday, June 13, 2007 7:00 pm
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry co-sponsored legislation Thursday designed to make television programming options more family-friendly.
The bill would require cable and satellite providers to either “limit indecent programming during daylight hours,” offer a family tier of programming or give customers the power to customize their own cable TV packages.
“The Family and Consumer Choice Act offers reasonable options that are good both for the family and the consumer,” Fortenberry said.
“It provides a balanced approach to the problem of violent and indecent programming on television, and it gives parents and consumers the power of choice.”
Unlike other areas of the marketplace, Fortenberry said, “Americans are not as free to choose among TV options.”
Instead, he said, they are “locked into purchasing packages that many times provide them more than they want.”
Consumers are offered “‘take it or leave it’ TV, often with violent and unsuitable content,” said Fortenberry, the Republican congressman from Lincoln who represents eastern Nebraska’s 1st District.
The bill, co-sponsored with Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., attracted support from Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, at a Capitol Hill news conference.
So-called a la carte TV packages are “the inevitable goal of this legislation,” said Derek Hunter, executive director of Media Freedom Project, a critic of the proposal.
“This is not a free-market solution,” he said. “Free markets cannot be achieved through government mandates and regulation.”
Media Freedom is a project of Americans for Tax Reform, headed by Grover Norquist, a leading conservative voice in Washington.
Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.