FCC Defends ABC, Fox Indecency Decisions to Supremes

[alp227]

Source: Broadcasting & Cable

The FCC has filed its petitioners brief to the Supreme Court defending its indecency decisions against Fox and ABC -- nudity on NYPD Blue and swearing in the Billboard Awards shows. The government sought the High Court review after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals threw out both those decisions as unconstitutionally vague.

The FCC took 54 pages or so to defend its 10-word conclusion: "The judgment of the court of appeals should be reversed."

The Fox and ABC decisions were rolled into the Janet Jackson Super Bowl decision in the Third Circuit and all three are before the Supreme Court for a ruling on whether the FCC's indecency enforcement regime is unconstitutionally vague, as those lower courts held.

The nut graph on the FCC's argument is that their indecency policies are constitutional as applied in those three cases as well as on their face. Commission lawyers invoked the compelling interest in protecting children, stood by the scarcity rationale for content regulation, and said the availability of alternatives like cable (which is available in most homes and is not under indecency regs) does not change the fact that broadcast programming "maintains a dominant presence in American life and culture." (editor's note: Broadcasters fighting for their spectrum might want to save that quote)

Read more: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/473561-FCC_Defends_ABC_Fox_Indecency_Decisions_to_Supremes.php

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The Parents Television Council has advocated for upholding the FCC decisions.

[comtec]

1. WE LOOK LIKE CHILDREN!!!!

To the rest of the world we look like puritanical children with our stupid decency laws on tv!
does anyone else get that?
What happened to self censorship?
It's not like the tits are flying on tv in other countries, but they don't have aneurysms if they see a nipple!!!

dear god save me from your followers, who have one braincell between them!

[Left Coast2020]

2. Amen.

All of a sudden we're now getting all upin arms because someone shows a boob on TV or says an explitive that is only aired after 10PM. What ever happened to PBS which used to show artistic dances by people who also happened to be naked? Another after 10 broadcast for the adults. Geezz. Oh wait, I forgot. The religious nuts don't think we're intellectual enough to make our own decisions. All that common sense broadcast programming ended in the 90's when political freaks said we had be be decent. We used to have a pragmatic trio in the FCC. But not now.

[No Elephants]

6. Who was President in the 90s?

[fascisthunter]

8. all while supplying an endless amount of our tax money for killing people

while cutting social services and giving the wealthy massive tax breaks which do nothing for the economy. But yeah, they instead worry about bad words and boobs. These people are nuts...

[Jkid]

11. It's American Puritanism for you.

[RC]

3. I was working on the antenna system and was running through the channels

and stopped on a local channel running an old black/white movie. The scene moved outside to a (church?)courtyard. In the courtyard was a white marble statue of a woman partly cover with a sheet or some such, from a 3/4 back side view. There were fuzzy spots where her breast should be and the hips. It was a statue. You would not have seen anything anyway! They censured a statue!

[No Elephants]

7. Bush's d of J spent $8K for drapes for statues in the Great Hall of Justice of the Justice

Department.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002/01/29/statues.htm

Supposedly, Ashcroft knew nothing about that. Supposedly.

[dipsydoodle]

5. You could'nt have expressed that better

other than by also including the expression "Victorian attitudes"

[AlbertCat]

4. the compelling interest in protecting children,

From what? Reality?

Next, will we be censoring nature shows that show birds courting or cells dividing?

[Yavin4]

9. With Cable, DVDs, and Videos Games So Prevelant in Peoples' Homes

So, who are we protecting with these ridiculous standards? Censorship has robbed network TV of its ability to create cutting edge, intelligent programming. Instead, there's a proliferation of reality tv and CSI-Law-and-Order clones.

Many Americans are not able to subscribe to premium cable, so they will miss truly provocative and entertaining dramas such as "The Wire" and "Breaking Bad".

[truebrit71]

10. Which puritanical asshole is running the FCC now?

Really, we're STILL talking about Janet Jackson's nipple???

No wonder Texan assholes that think that SS is a pnozi scheme, gloabl warming is a myth, and praying will make it rain are considered "front-runners" and not the raving fucking lunatics that they are...

This country is so screwn..I;m series!!!!111