Censorship Alert! - GOP wants to censor pay TV and radio

OK, this is getting regodamndiculous! According to this Reuters story, two GOP lawmakers want to apply the same decency standards that apply to broadcast TV and radio to cable and satellite. Apparently, HBO's Real Sex series, Showtime's The L Word and Queer as Folk, and Cinemax's unconvincing mime sex are just too much for these guys.

Now, for those of you who might not know this, the FCC regulates broadcast media. That is, media that are free and use the public's airwaves (yes they are our's, even though you need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars for a broadcast license). The FCC does NOT have the power to regulate subscription pay services, such as cable and satellite TV and radio. Besides, with the V-chip and parental lockout controls, the kids are protected already. They want to keep adults from viewing adult material.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two top U.S. Republican lawmakers on Tuesday said they want to apply broadcast decency standards to cable television and satellite television and radio to protect children from explicit content.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said he would push legislation this year to accomplish that goal and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton said he would back it if it does not violate free speech rights.

"Cable is a much greater violator in the indecency area," Stevens, from Alaska, told the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents hundreds of local television and radio affiliates. "I think we have the same power to deal with cable as over-the-air" broadcasters.

"There has to be some standard of decency," he said, but noted that "no one wants censorship."

This is the very definition of censorship! The government telling you what you can't see, hear, or read.

You know, in Canada, a nation of adults, they broadcast movies over the public airwaves unedited, with no bleeps, and they don't freak out about it. They also have adult strength beer.