Shock jocks none of Congress' business.

• Position: Your Life - Politics and indecency on television and radio - Brief Article

Many politicians now complaining about indecency on television and radio are engaging in election-year posturing that could threaten freedom of expression, warns Bill Lee, professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia, Athens. "The indecency feeding frenzy in Washington, D.C., is merely election-year posturing, a blatant appeal to 'family values' at the expense of freedom of expression."

Lee faults the Federal Communications Commission for not clearly defining indecency. FCC guidelines say that a television or radio broadcast will be found indecent if it, first, describes sexual or excretory organs or activities and, second, broadcasts material patently offensive as measured by a national standard.

"The FCC has failed to provide a clear definition of indecency. Terms such as 'patently offensive' are highly subjective," Lee contends. "The FCC's actions are reminiscent of...