WDBJ Fine Highlights Broadcast Inequality

[Commentary] When I first saw the Federal Communications Commission order fining Schurz's WDBJ Roanoke-Lynchburg (VA) $325,000 for broadcast indecency, I frankly didn't have much sympathy for the station. I figured that the offending story about an ex-porn star joining a local rescue squad was another attempt by a station to pump up the ratings with a some gratuitous sex. But after looking at the station's response to the FCC inquiry and a transcript of the story, I see that the story, which aired in July 2012, is legit.

It seems that some people around Cave Spring (VA) apparently didn't like having a ex-porn star on the rescue squad and were trying to get her bounced from it. I do believe the station's story. I don't think the reporter, the photographer, the news director or any producer intentionally included the offending images into the story as some kind of joke. But it really shouldn't matter. Regulating indecency in broadcasting should be as unconstitutional as it is in publishing, the movies, the Internet and every other medium.