FCC Asks For Another Crack at Profanity

FCC ASKS FOR ANOTHER CRACK AT PROFANITY
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The FCC -- joined by ABC, NBC and CBS affiliate associations -- has asked a New York Court to delay its scheduled hearing of a challenge to four indecency findings against fleeting expletives that were part of the FCC’s March indecency findings. The four had no fine attached and the FCC’s promise it would not hold them against stations at renewal time, thus the FCC considered its work done. The networks, their affiliate associations, and Hearst-Argyle TV took those decisions directly to court, since the FCC had bypassed the normal appeals process in what it said was an effort to provide guidance without adverse consequences. The incidents in question occurred during a 2004 airing of CBS’ The Early Show, Fox’s 2002 and 2003 broadcast of The Billboard Music Awards and a 2003 episode of ABC’s NYPD Blue. NBC did not have a program involved but intervened nonetheless given the still-unresolved Bono "f-word" decision (an NBC Golden Globes telecast) that signalled the beginning of the tougher profanity policy. The FCC’s initial decision was that a fleeting, adjectival f-word was not indecent, but that was later reversed by the commissioners after Congress pushed the FCC to reexamine the case. Now, the FCC has asked the court to remand the four March profanity decisions back to it so that it can look at them again and hear the arguments that the broadcasters did not get to make. The FCC promises to make its new ruling on them within 60 days and wants the September court arguments delayed.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6349901.html

* FCC Shifts Gears on Indecency
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10312

* FCC Seeks a Review of Indecency
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/business/media/06fcc.html