Concerned Women for America - Broadcasters Join Forces; Challenge FCC Indecency Rulings

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Broadcasters Join Forces; Challenge FCC Indecency Rulings 4/21/2004
By Martha Kleder

Will their efforts work to bully the FCC?

A coalition of broadcasters, performers and liberal advocacy groups have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to overturn its ruling against the NBC network. The Petition for Reconsideration asked the FCC to rescind its ruling that the Bono “F-word” incident on the 2003 Golden Globes broadcast was indecent.

Petitioners include a collection of large and mid-size radio and television networks like Viacom, Fox, RadioOne, Citadel, Beasley and Intercom, performers Margaret Cho and Penn & Teller, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Media Access Project.

NBC filed its own petition with the FCC, and ABC refuses to participate in the battle, noting that it has not been cited for indecency.

Broadcasters make it clear that they are prepared to challenge this ruling and all of the FCC’s recent indecency actions in the courts if the FCC doesn’t back down.

“The FCC consciously assumed the role of a national arbiter of good taste, and its decision already is exerting a chilling effect,” wrote Bob Corn-Revere, attorney for the petitioners.

“The media giants had this action in mind all along,” said Jan LaRue, CWA’s chief counsel. “They have only been acting contrite for the sake of politics. Now that they realize that the crackdown is driven by a public outcry, and is not election-year grandstanding, they are showing their true colors.”

The petition goes on to note the “chilling effect” the FCC’s new commitment to enforcement has had on radio, causing stations to edit or pull from their play list songs like The Who’s “Who Are You?” and Pink Floyd’s “Money.”

“Those songs became popular at a time when edited ‘radio versions’ were made for stations by the record labels on a routine basis,” LaRue noted. “To pull those songs from the air is a ploy to support their ‘chilling effect’ argument. This is a disingenuous overreaction and a pathetic attempt to blame the FCC for it. Do these media elites think the public is dumb?”

In its own petition to the FCC, NBC said the FCC should review whether it should be enforcing any anti-decency rules now given that broadcast viewers have the option of using the V-chip to block channels they don’t want and that stations must now compete with raunchier, pay-TV programming.

LaRue said, “NBC wants the FCC to ignore both its duty under the law and current broadcast practice so that NBC and others can continue to take us further into the cultural sewer. The FCC has no authority to review whether it should be enforcing the law.”

“The V-chip is completely ineffective against such offenses as the F-word in a live broadcast, or Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl stunt,” she said. “Broadcasters are complaining about having to enact common sense and long-used self-regulatory practices. Five-second delays in a live broadcast were commonplace until broadcasters began to disregard civility.”

More Than Just the ‘F-word’

Meanwhile, other profane utterances are being challenged. Florida attorney Jack Thompson, the man who launched the recent successful complaints against shock-jock Howard Stern, has filed an indecency complaint against the CBS 60 Minutes broadcast in which singer Mary J. Blige uttered the “S-word.”

This April 18, 2004, episode was a re-broadcast, meaning that CBS allowed the profanity to air twice.

“This constitutes a violation of FCC-enforced decency standards, just as surely as does Bono’s use of the word ['f-ing'] on the prime-time telecast of the 2003 Golden Globes,” said Thompson in his complaint.

In the FCC’s Golden Globes ruling, the commissioners opened the door to fining the use of other profanities that involve sexual or excretory functions, whether the person using the word means it literally or euphemistically.

A Month of Action

CWA is not letting the media industry bully the FCC at the expense of our children. We have been in the forefront of efforts to enforce existing laws on broadcast indecency and are pushing for common-sense legislation to give parents more control over what comes into their homes via cable and satellite programming.

In May, CWA and like-minded groups will be drawing attention to this issue during “Victims of Pornography Month.” Check back on this Web site throughout the month for exciting updates on this battle!

To read CWA's paper, "So You Want to File a Broadcast Indecency Complaint," click here.