Jan Schakowsky, Democratic congresscritter from Evanston, and Marathon Pundit's rep in Washington, posted this bizarre statement on her web site last week, which I've excerpted.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky today spoke in support of protecting free speech and diversifying media ownership at the Future of Music Policy Summit.
Representative Schakowsky’s statement is below:
I don’t know what it was about Janet Jackson’s nipple, but it set off a frenzy in Congress. The baring of her breast created an obsession in Congress about getting “indecency” off the airwaves. (I wonder what Freud would say.) Nobody was concerned about the violence of the act, the ripping of her clothes, but that children may have seen something that I am sure all of them had already seen.
The reason I oppose Congress’s answer to indecency on the airwaves – raising fines against broadcasters and artist to $500,000 per indecent incident – is because the excessive fines against artist is a form of censorship and would violate the right to Free Speech. I believe that raising fines would be more successful at undermining our First Amendment rights and creative expression than it would be successful in cleaning up the airwaves. Those fines would amount to what William Shakespeare describes as “art made tongue-tied by authority.”
No one can believe that the fear of those fines would not prohibit artistic expression. Not every artist gets the salary of Janet Jackson and can proceed as the fine would just be the cost of doing their thing. The average musician makes just $36, 290 per year. The average actor makes merely $23, 470 per year. Even a fine of $11,000 – current law – could destroy an artist who was found to be “indecent.”
I believe that if the fines are raised to $500,000, artists would become so obsessed with not being “objectionable,” so afraid of the financial devastation the indecency fines could cause for them, that they could self-censor away their creativity and truly sensational (in the good sense) performances. We are heading down a slippery slope when Big Brother decides what constitutes free speech and artistic expression. This legislation threatens to undermine both our Constitution and our creativity.
Personally, I am much more concerned about protecting my grandchildren’s First Amendment rights than I am about them seeing Janet Jackson’s nipple.
Those grandchildren of Congresscritter Schakowsky have a grandfather who is an admitted tax cheat and check-kiter.
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