Self-regulation for airwaves?

Television broadcasters should revive a voluntary code of conduct with their own indecency rules, a Republican senator on Wednesday told a closed-door summit meeting of the National Broadcasters Assn.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) told an audience of about 300 mostly local broadcasters that “they are directing culture and need to take responsibility,” according to aides who attended the panel in Washington, D.C. He suggested self-regulation would avoid the ambiguity involved in decisions by the Federal Communications Commission, they said.

Association members, concerned with the possibility of stricter rules regarding license renewals, neither bristled nor applauded, the aides said. NAB officials said they did not expect any action to be announced at the summit.