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Show F 'TTTTTTTW PAGE 2mhtr$Hcroto THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2004 VIEWPOINT EDITOR I Don Meyers 344-2554 dmeyersheraldextra.com Decency regulation approaching censorship Paul K. McMasters If the driver in the car next to you at a stoplight tells you to turn off the radio program you're listening to, you tell him to get lost. If the next-door neighbor tells you to turn off the TV show you're watching, you tell her to mind her own business. But when these champions of decency join a group of like-minded like-minded citizens, which puts pressure on elected leaders and the Federal Communications Commission to regulate what we can see and hear on radio and television, we tend to tune out, surrendering to the notion that government knows best. That is a dangerous notion, especially if we keep in mind just how many ways there are for our elected and appointed leaders to restrict what broadcast broad-cast audiences that's us can see and hear. It has been less than a year since a fraction-of-a-second glimpse of a fraction-of-a-frac-tion of Janet Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl halftime program brought a nation to its knees in apparent shock and disbelief and political candidates candi-dates to their feet in thinly disguised dis-guised joy at such a great issue to exploit during a campaign season. Under pressure from Congress Con-gress and special-interest groups, the FCC immediately launched an aggressive campaign cam-paign to cleanse the airwaves of "indecency." But now the regulation fever . has' spread. The commission is exploring other ways to regulate regu-late broadcasters, all of which engage free-speech concerns. Broadcasters in every community commu-nity have been asked to re spond by mid-September to FCC proposals that could result in broadcasters' editing or dropping drop-ping programs with violence, changing their newscasts, "improving" "im-proving" their political coverage, cover-age, and setting up an expensive expen-sive process of retaining tape recordings of broadcasts to be used against them if someone files a complaint. In addition, the FCC is looking look-ing closely at broadcast station ownership, pushed on by media reformers concerned about consolidation con-solidation of the media. "All of this adds up to an at- See DECENCY, 3 GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE AT www.catmiKe.com 4985 NORTH EDEEWOOD DRIVE STADIUM SEATING PAPARAZZI (PG-13) WAS d io 4:4b :iS9:4b WICKER PARK (PG-13) i:4b a:4S :uuiu:uu HERO (PG-13) 12:00 2:30 5:00 7:4010:10 THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (PG-13) i:uu 4:uu :uu iu:uu SUSPECT ZERO (R) 12:15 2:45 5:15 7:45 ANACONDAS (PG-13) iii:au z:su a:iu i.w iu:iu SAINTS AND SOLDIERS (PG-13) 12:30 2:45 5:00 7:30 9:50 THE PRINCESS DIARIES (G) 12:45 4:00 7:3(T 10:20 ALIEN VS. PREDATOR (PG-13) 12:15 2:45 5:15 7:45 10:15 WITHOUT A PADDLE (PG-13) 12:10 2:30 5:00 7:45 10:30 THE VILLAGE (PG-13) 1:00 3:45 7:0010:00 OPEN WATER (R) 12:30 2:45 5:00 7:30 EXORCIST: THE BEGINNING (R) 9:50 MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE OPfWTMPUTOfflS ,-ffl(MiiKWM)m8KRMffrawra2ttaw7a smdb Howes nar m wsis mi mums mi smmmi P.iWIIiOTilTT "V -.4VUWi".;-.,.,X.'i, Courtesy photo Palo Verde Nuclear Plant 50 miles west of Phoenix at Wintersburg. Homeland Security rules can keep people from finding out about problems at power plants, chemical plants and other facilities that had to report emissions under federal right-to-know legislation. Secrecy won t protect us George Sorvalis Do you know what hazardous chemicals are in your neigh-, borhood, your air, and your drinking water? Community right-to-know laws can help you find out. Community right-to-know laws give people a greater voice in environmental decisions deci-sions by providing communities communi-ties with information about dangerous chemical storage, contaminated drinking water, or other potential hazards. For example, the Toxics Release Re-lease Inventory came on-line in 1989 as the first publicly available, avail-able, federally mandated database data-base of pollution sources. With in the first eight years, industries indus-tries responded by reducing reported re-ported chemical releases by 44 percent, or 1.6 billion pounds, due in part to improved public awareness. Another important right-to-know program requires companies com-panies that use extremely hazardous haz-ardous chemicals to submit 'Risk Management Plans' to the federal government. These plans help businesses understand under-stand their own hazards and inform in-form workers and surrounding communities of the potential dangers of an accidental chemical chemi-cal release. Shortly after Sept. 11, Washington, Wash-ington, D.C's Blue Plains Sewage Treatment Plant switched from volatile chlorine gas, which could have exposed D.C. residents to a toxic cloud, to safer chlorine bleach, which has little potential to send toxic gases across the fence line and into the community. Knowledge Knowl-edge of both chemical hazards and viable solutions was essential essen-tial in reducing an unnecessary danger and ultimately making the community safer. Other U.S. right-to-know laws require water utilities to monitor and report pollutants in drinking water, landlords to disclose lead paint in housing, and employers to identify and make known hazardous chemicals chemi-cals in the workplace. However, Howev-er, people are often unaware of health and environmental hazards haz-ards in homes, schools and communities. Moreover, under For example, the Homeland the Bush administration, in stead of becoming more available, avail-able, information critical to public health and safety is disappearing. Security Act, passed in 2002, could undermine corporate accountability ac-countability and hide basic pub-See pub-See SECRECY, 2 Ve Shop No Stress Ve Chop ffo Hess Dinner. 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