It's baaaaack

Just when I thought John Ashcroft was busy fighting terrorism, it seems like his mind is on naked adults doing things... with objects!

In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in rooms of major hotel chains.

Couple this with the Michael Powell's FCC fining Clear Channel $495,000 for indecent broadcasts by Howard Stern, and maybe we've got a preview of the Bush administration's domestic priorities for the next ten months. John Hogan, president of Clear Channel Radio, sums up the goal of all these lawsuits and fines:

"Mr. Stern's show has created a great liability for us and other broadcasters who air it," said John Hogan, president of Clear Channel Radio. "The Congress and the FCC are even beginning to look at revoking station licenses. That's a risk we're just not willing to take."

Can the moralists take back some control of the media? Volokh discusses the difficulty of Ashcroft's goal. We might all be looking at Safe For Work porn soon.

Posted by harry at April 8, 2004 7:38 PM | TrackBack