Self-censorship: Anatomy of an abuse of power

If you'd like to see a stark naked, fully exposed, flatly unconstitutional abuse of power, look no further than the National Cable & Telecommunications Association convention in San Francisco this week.

There you can witness the spectacle of House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin as they strip off their shirts and flex their biceps, for the sake of the children, of course.

The honorable gentlemen are doing their best to muscle the cable industry into censoring itself. Why? Because Congress has no authority under the Constitution to tell private companies what kind of shows they may produce and distribute over privately owned cable and satellite networks for private citizens to purchase with their own money.

FCC Chairman Martin was asked if wants the industry to regulate itself. "Absolutely," he said. Why face messy constitutional questions when you can frighten people into giving up their freedom voluntarily?

Chairman Sensenbrenner reassured the cable executives that he doesn't favor regulation to stop "indecency." He favors throwing people in jail. "The criminal process, rather than the regulatory process, is the way to go to stop this," he explained.

Chairman Stevens, meanwhile, was allowing cable executives to plead with him to stop his constitutionally questionable plan to extend broadcast decency regulations to cable and satellite networks. Watch for a generous flow of campaign contributions to accompany the pleadings. These people know their business. The politicians, that is.

You don't have to be an HBO subscriber to see the obscenity of this.

Either we have a Constitution, or we don't. If we do, it limits the power of the federal government to the enumerated powers in the document and the powers that are necessary and proper to carry out the enumerated powers in the document. If we don't, members of Congress and senators can read the papers and the polls every morning, yawn and stretch, and then threaten any individual or business that displeases them in any way.

The First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press...." A reasonable person might think that means Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. If it doesn't, it's time to write a new amendment that does.

Copyright 2005 by Susan Shelley