The week started out in an exciting way! We had four advocates speak in favor of a statewide ban on using nicotine or tobacco products on all K-12 school property at a public hearing in the House of Representatives on Monday night. Three of us were the final three speakers of the night and we definitely had an impact on legislators who were present. We anticipate an amendment will be filed to the House Education Reform bill on this next week. Watch for an Action Alert!

The House was supposed to debate the Health & Human Services spending bill yesterday, but didn't. That bill zeroes out spending for tobacco prevention and cessation programs. For more on this issue, check out my opinion piece that was published in last Saturday's Des Moines Register here.

More ammunition for our position came this week in the form of a new report from the US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin said youth tobacco use is a "pediatric epidemic" and a grave threat to public health. Why then is the Iowa House Appropriations Committee proposing eliminating all funding for tobacco prevention and cessation?  To see the press release sent out by the Iowa Tobacco Prevention Alliance yesterday tying the Surgeon General's report to the situation in Iowa, click here.

The man who served as NBC-TV's legal counsel for 25 years warns the FCC is poised to resurrect broad censorship rules that were revoked in 1987 because of their chilling effect on both free speech and the television press.

Corydon B. Dunham says the proposed new Localism, Balance and Diversity Doctrine could eventually also affect news on the Internet. The FCC is reportedly planning to transfer the broadcast spectrum used by local television to the Internet to make it the nation's primary communications platform, and the agency has started to regulate the Internet.

In his new book, Government Control of News: A Constitutional Challenge (http://freespeech.authorsxpress.com/), Dunham recounts the evolution of government control of television news and the Fairness Doctrine. The book, the result of a study initiated at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institute, examines the history of the Fairness Doctrine - the rules by which the federal government regulated TV journalism. Similar rules had governed radio news since 1934 and were applied to TV in 1949 by the Federal Communications Commission.

"TV was a powerful new medium and there were only a few broadcast stations in many communities. It was thought that this gave unusual power to station and network owners," Dunham explains. "The government justified the Fairness Doctrine as a way to ensure stations aired opposing viewpoints on issues."

But what was touted as an attempt to encourage robust discourse became a tool for censoring the news, Dunham says.

"If a complaint was made about a view that had been broadcast, the FCC investigated. If it concluded that a view should be changed, it ordered that. If it concluded other views should be presented, or even related issues, it ordered that," Dunham says.

Failure to comply could result in no license renewal, renewal for a shorter period of time, or a "negative record" applied at renewal time.

In 1987, the FCC unanimously revoked the Fairness Doctrine, with court approval, after finding it had deterred news reporting on controversial issues, and had repeatedly been used to suppress viewpoints and help some officials pursue their own political objectives, Dunham says.

After two decades of failed attempts in Congress to revive the Fairness Doctrine, support began building anew. In 2008, the FCC released a new proposed body of rules for TV news - the Localism, Balance and Diversity Doctrine.

"It has many of the same characteristics of the old Fairness Doctrine and can be expected to have similar results," Dunham says. "News broadcast by television stations would have to meet government criteria for 'localism' - local news production and coverage - as well as a regulatory balance and diversity of viewpoints. A three-vote majority of five FCC commissioners at a central government agency would make local news judgments and override those of thousands of independent, local TV reporters and editors."

It would also be enforced by having a local board at each station monitor programming, including news, and recommend against license renewal if the station did not comply with FCC policy.

In 2011, the FCC-sponsored Future of Media Study recommended the localism doctrine proceeding be ended. The present chief of the White House regulatory office has long recommended that the government regulate news to advance its political and social objectives, Dunham says.

"There is unprecedented silence from the FCC about its plans for television news in this country," Dunham says.

TV is not the only medium potentially affected.

"At the end of 2010, the FCC decided to take over regulation of the Internet in this country. It will regulate its traffic and gain some power to review content," Dunham says.

"The president, Congress and the FCC have also agreed to transfer the entire broadcast spectrum (currently used by TV stations) to the Internet over the next 10 years. If the localism doctrine is adopted, it could apply to the Internet and its participants as users of the FCC-controlled spectrum."

Dunham says requiring journalists to comply with a central government agency's policy on how to report the news means those journalists will no longer be free and independent.

"As the Fairness Doctrine broadcast history shows, the threat of loss of license will deter station news coverage, particularly of controversy, and the public will lose news and information.

"If the broadcast press is not free and independent of government, it cannot act as a watchdog for the public, which is its constitutional role."

About Corydon B. Dunham

Corydon B. Dunham is a Harvard Law School graduate. His "Government Control of News" study was expanded and developed for the Corydon B. Dunham Fellowship for the First Amendment at Harvard Law School and the Dunham Open Forum for First Amendment Values at Bowdoin College. Dunham was an executive at NBC from 1965 to 1990. He oversaw legal and government matters and Broadcast Standards. He was on the board of directors of the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Corporate Counsel Association, and American Arbitration Association among other posts.

Strip club surcharge passes Senate committee

SPRINGFIELD - March 6, 2012. Lt. Governor Sheila Simon testified in support of legislation that passed 8-0 out of a Senate committee today that would fund rape crisis centers through an entrance fee at strip clubs.

Senate Bill 3348, sponsored by Sen. Toi Hutchinson, would require all adult entertainment facilities that permit alcohol to pay a $5-per-patron fee. The funds would be distributed to community-based sexual assault prevention and response organizations that have seen their state funding decrease 28 percent in the past five years. Over the coming weeks, Simon looks forward to working with Hutchinson to continue research to address suggestions from the committee.

In her testimony, Simon said: "This bill is a responsible way to regulate the adult entertainment industry in Illinois and restore funding to community-based organizations that provide critical services to women, children and law enforcement agencies. Substantial evidence links alcohol sales at strip clubs to negative secondary effects, including violence against women. Clubs that profit from alcohol and nude dancing should pick up the tab for the related social ills. If they don't want to pay the tab, they can stop permitting alcohol."

R.T. Finney, the president of Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, and Dr. Richard McCleary, a University of California-Irvine professor and adult entertainment business researcher, submitted written testimony in support of SB 3348 today.

Last year, the Texas Supreme Court upheld legislation that imposed a $5 entrance fee at strip clubs permitting alcohol, based on the "negative secondary effects," or related social ills such as sexual abuse and assault. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge of that decision, effectively opening the door for other cities and states to purse similar measures. California is among the states seeking legislation; it is considering a $10-per-patron fee.

To view the written testimony submitted by Lt. Governor Simon, Professor Richard McCleary, and Police Chief R.T. Finney, please click here.

The week did not start off well! The House Appropriations Committee on Monday passed the Health & Human Services spending bill, which again zeroes out spending for tobacco prevention and cessation programs. We immediately sent out an Action Alert to our advocates, generating 110 responses to 60 legislators. That is great, but we could use more. It's not too late to have your voice heard!  Click here to take action.  The bill, HF 2435, will likely be debated next week by the full House.

Remember the bill that would prohibit the use of all tobacco products on school property? (It passed the Senate overwhelmingly last session 44-5 but is now stuck in the House because of opposition by the leaders.) The good news is it is part of the Senate education reform bill, thanks to Sen. Herman Quirmback, D-Ames.  And Rep. Kevin Koester, R-Ankeny, plans to offer an amendment to the House education reform bill to put it in. We have speakers lined up for a public hearing on the education bill on Monday evening at the Capitol to talk about why this should be part of the bill. If you are interested in speaking, contact Justin - Justin.huck@cancer.org.

Our Iowa Health Advocates group geared up for presentations to senators yesterday, talking about what we want to see in a bill establishing an Iowa Health Insurance Exchange. Four representatives (including me) of our 35-member coalition testified to eight senators about the importance of the Exchange, since it could potentially help over 1 million Iowans enroll in health insurance with no pre-existing condition exemption starting in 2014.  Insurance industry representatives also testified. A bill on the Exchange sponsored by Sen. Jack Hatch, D-Des Moines, (SF 2042) is on the Senate debate calendar. Watch for action on that in the next several weeks. You can read my testimony here.

Finally, if you are free on Monday, March 12th, at noon consider coming up to the Capitol (Room 116) to hear Dr. George Weiner present a Lunch & Learn about cancer research happening at the University of Iowa. I guarantee you will find it fascinating.

As always, feel free to contact me directly with any questions or concerns - peggy.huppert@cancer.org.