Broadcasters usually consider TV censorship a menace only slightly less lethal than poison gas. Once released, they say, even the smallest amount of enforced control over programming will inexorably expand until it eventually envelops and deadens the most remote corners of the communications industry. Yet at its annual convention in Washington, D.C., last week, the National Association of Broadcasters—which includes station owners and networks—took a tentative step toward adopting a plan for the industry's first version of formal censorship.
The proposal is largely the result of a long campaign by Rhode Island...