Jesus' General

Bill won't deny us our right to spread hate

The opening paragraphs of one of yesterday's Focus on the Family email items had me a bit worried.

A bill that would increase fines for broadcast indecency from $17,000 to $500,000 dollars has large broadcasting groups like Infinity, promoters of the Howard Stern program, concerned.

But the legislation, passed this month by the House and now in the Senate, also worries conservatives like Steve Lilienthal of the Free Congress Foundation Center for Privacy and Technology.

"It could potentially be a disserving precedent in that a change of administration or personnel at the FCC could very well take that action and apply . . . it against speech that conservatives view to be perfectly normal and acceptable political discourse," Lilienthal said.

Fortunately, the next two paragraphs point out that we conservatives have nothing to worry about. The bill won't cover hate speech.

But Pat Trueman, who works with the Family Research Council, thinks those fears are unfounded.

"Indecency is prohibited by federal statute," he explained, "so if Hillary Clinton does become president, the FCC can't just begin outlawing hate speech."

Thank God the "perfectly normal and acceptable political discourse" we use to intimidate minorities will still be protected.