With the proliferation of cable television, satellites and the associated rise of “reality TV,” indecency has become a hot topic in the news. In the past few years, the FCC has stepped up it’s enforcement of indecency rules. Broadcasters, writers and actors have complained that the FCC is overstepping its bounds and infringing on the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens.
Here are a few examples of “indecent” material cases the FCC has heard recently:
In 2003, Clear Channel was fined for airing Howard Stern’s discussion of a then-new hygiene product called “Sphincterine.” (I’m not making it up. It really exists.) In 2004, thousands of citizens complained about an Oprah Winfrey episode on the topic of teen sex that addressed such topics as getting one’s salad tossed. In the most famous case of all, Janet Jackson drew a $550,000 fine for revealing a nipple during the 2004 Super Bowl. The WB drew a $27,500 fine for showing porn star Ron Jeremy caressing a pixelated breast. Telemundo was fined $32,500 for depicted a non-nude rape scene. CBS is facing a fine of $3.6M fine for a racy episode of “Without a Trace.”
Conservative and family groups, most notably the Parent Television Council (PTC), are leading the charge against explicit programming. According to the FCC, “Indecent material contains sexual or excretory material that does not rise to the level of obscenity.”
TheStateOf . . .Television has definitely become much edgier and sexualized in the past five years or so. There are times when my (Justin) jaw drops and I’m like, “Wow, can you show that on regular TV?” I would definitely not allow my son to watch much of the day or nighttime programming on regular TV. So I definitely think the PTC is onto something. On other hand, I don’t want some government bureaucrat deciding what I can and can’t watch.
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