So after spending years bullying the networks into accepting guidelines for the depiction of violence, Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.) now bemoans that the guidelines "lack teeth" because they can't be enforced by law. Damn right! Maybe he's forgotten, but there's a thing called the First Amendment that prevents government from proscribing what its citizens may see and say.
Ultimately, there's only one solution--abolish the FCC (at least as far as it has power to control content). After over half a century of operating by leave of the government, let broadcasters take their rightful place alongside book, magazine and newspaper publishers and let the public truly decide what it wants.
