Priorities
The Federal Communications Commission wants to fine CBS and its affiliates $3.6 million for airing an episode of "Without a Trace" that supposedly depicted "teenage boys and girls participating in a sexual orgy." (I say "supposedly" only because I didn't see the episode.) That's several multiples of the $550,000 fine it levied against the same network and some of its stations for the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" incident during the Super Bowl two years ago.
That figure compares with a total of about $125,000 in fines levied by the government against the company that owns the West Virginia coal mine where 12 workers died in January.
I think that the kindest thing that can be said about this is that the government really needs to revisit the structure of its fines and civil penalties so that the most important violations carry the highest cost. By "most important," I mean the ones that address risks to human life. And it would be nice to think that that's what the government means by "most important," too.