FCC’s appeal of indecency case applauded

Pro-family advocates applauded the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to appeal a court ruling they fear could open broadcast television to the use of even more profanities and obscenities.

The FCC filed a petition with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, asking the judges to reconsider their July opinion striking down the agency’s broadcast indecency policy. A three-judge panel unanimously ruled the FCC’s approach to overseeing obscene or profane language is “unconstitutionally vague.”

The FCC’s petition is the latest act in a case that has gone up and down the federal court system in recent years. The Fox Channel and other networks sued the FCC after the commission found live Fox broadcasts of the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards programs violated decency standards by use of the “f-word” and/or “s-word.”

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, said the courts must “reaffirm the FCC’s statutory authority.”

“The importance of the broadcast decency law has become abundantly apparent as the broadcast networks demonstrate their desire to push ever-more graphic content at all times of the day,” Winter said in a written statement. “The airwaves have become a battleground for networks to out-cuss, out-sex and out-gore each other, and sadly it is children and families who are in the crossfire.”

The case, Fox v. FCC, began in the courts after the commission announced a new policy in ruling against the network for the use of “fleeting expletives.” Previously an indecent word had to be used repeatedly for the FCC to find a broadcaster in violation. If it allowed the singular use of expletives, widespread usage of those words on TV would follow, the FCC said in defending its revised policy.

In July of this year, the Second Circuit again ruled against the FCC, saying its indecency policy did not provide appropriate guidance to broadcasters on what is “patently offensive” material. The court also said the FCC did not apply its policy equally to all broadcast programming.  (BP)