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Fox Affiliates Fined for Indecent Reality Show 10/15/2004 Only one station refused to air offensive episode.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed a $1.18 million fine against 169 Fox Television Network affiliates for airing the April 7, 2003, episode of Married By America. The proposed forfeiture is for the minimum $7,000 per station airing the program.
The reality show in question featured singles who agreed to live as engaged couples and possibly marry, even though they are complete strangers. The episode generating the proposed fine featured Las Vegas bachelor and bachelorette parties which clearly depicted sexual situations during hours when children would likely be in the audience. The show aired before 10 p.m. in every time zone nationwide.
This action by the FCC differs from the fine imposed in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident. In that case,only the affiliates owned by CBS were fined.
“In that case we concluded that the affiliates ‘could not have reasonably anticipated that the CBS Network production of a prestigious national event such as the Super Bowl would contain material that included the on-camera exposure of Ms. Jackson’s breast,’” explained the FCC in the Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) against the Fox affiliates. “This program, in contrast, was a taped episode in a taped series, and the affiliates could have pre-empted it, as at least one affiliate did.”
That affiliate was WRAZ-TV, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Following the March 5, 2003, episode of Married By America, the Capitol Broadcasting Company station issued a press release stating that Capitol “decided that the program did not reflect prevailing standards of good taste and that the show was clearly demeaning to the institution of marriage.” WRAZ-TV refused to air additional episodes of the show.
"What does WRAZ know that the others don't?" asked Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture & Family Institute. "They know that broadcasters have a responsibility to the community not to traffic in smut. The station's directors deserve an award for standing alone when all the other affiliates went along, lemming-like, with this trash."
According to the NAL released October 12, 2004, Fox contends that the show was not indecent because all body parts were pixilated. The FCC disagreed.
“Even with Fox’s editing, the episode includes scenes in which party-goers lick whipped cream from strippers’ bodies in a sexually suggestive manner. Another scene features a
man on all fours in his underwear as two female strippers playfully spank him. … Although the nudity was pixilated, even a child would have knows that the strippers were topless and that sexual activity was being shown,” reads the NAL.
Fox also contends that the material was fleeting. The FCC rejected that claim, timing the segment at six minutes in length and saying it is the focus of the episode.
“Even when the FCC gives broadcasters the benefit of the doubt and a lot of rope, they can’t help but go off the edge and hang themselves by airing patently offensive broadcasts,” said Knight. “We hope these enforcement actions, and the hope of increased indecency fines, will cause the networks to re-think many of the shows and scripts they have waiting for us this season.”
The FCC notes that it received 159 complaintsabout this episode. Fox affiliates have until November 11 to ask the FCC to rescind the fine.
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