Survey Results Mixed on FCC Indecency Enforcement

According to a new Rasmussen poll, only slightly more people believe the Federal Communications Commission is doing a "good or excellent" job (29%) of regulating "profanity, sexual content and violence" than say it is doing a poor job (28%). Just 9% said it was doing an excellent job, with 20% saying it was doing a good job, 37% fair, and 6% weren't sure.

Since the FCC does not regulate violent content, however, and all three are part of the question, those answers are tough to parse. According to the poll, violence is their number one issue, however. Asked which type of content was their biggest problem, violence got 39% of their answers, followed by sexual content, and only 9% profanity. A majority of respondents (55%) to the survey (of 1,000 adults polled July 27-28) said they thought the FCC should have the power to regulate "objectionable content" on radio and TV including violence, profanity and sexual content (34% said no, 11% weren't sure). That 55% figure is actually down eight points from the 2007 survey on the topic, according to Rasmussen. Since it did not break out broadcast, which is already regulated, from cable, which is not, it is hard to tell whether or not that is an endorsement of applying broadcast standards to cable.