Senator Kennedy,

I am very concerned about the implications of the pending legislation to increase the amount and scope of the FCC’s indecency fines. Indecency has always been difficult to define subject, and I feel that by not only increasing the fines but also directly fining performers/personalities (as opposed to the network itself) is going to stifle creativity and freedom of speech on the airwaves.

What troubles me most is that the subject of these fines is so nebulous. The FCC and the Government has always used “community standards” as the most clear guideline, and that doesn’t really clarify the situation any further.

If this legislation passes, a performer will have to wait, potentially for months, to find out if something they said was deemed indecent by the FCC, and if they will be fined. Add this lag time into the already unclear “community standards”, and the prospects for free speech are even more dismal. Let the market decide who is decent and indecent, as it has for years.

As a constituent, I implore you to vote against this bill. Don’t let the already eroding civil liberties and rights of the American public be further eroded by those elected by us.