Rush Limbaugh Stepped Into It This Time

[Commentary] On June 1, Radio host Rush Limbaugh, in referring to a report about brisk job growth, used the word "bulls--t." Cussing on the air, my friends, is where the Federal Communications Commission draws the line. Under its indecency rules, the FCC takes "complaints alleging the broadcast of material that describes or depicts sexual or excretory material."

The FCC's rules about indecency are intended to protect children from seeing or hearing things over our publicly owned airwaves which parents believe may be damaging to them. The minimum fine the FCC imposes for a single indecency offense is $7,000, and the maximum is $325,000. But Limbaugh's website says he airs on 590 individual stations nationwide. And you can bet that the Flush Rush Facebook group and #StopRush twitter volunteers, who have taken nearly every advertiser away from Limbaugh's program by simply educating sponsors as to what Rush really rants about, will be making complaints about every last station. That would add up to a minimum fine of $4,130,000, but a maximum of $191,750,000. That is way too much money for stations who are already losing money airing Limbaugh's show to cough up. And that's no BS.

[Sue Wilson is the director of "Broadcast Blues" from Media Action Center]