Fox fights the FCC
The FCC was in court last week, defending its recent indecency rulings before an appellate panel of judges. The case at issue was brought by Fox after the network was sanctioned (but not fined) by the agency for a pair of curse words that went “unbleeped” during two different awards shows. The FCC found the broadcast indecent and Fox sued, looking for clarity as to what constitutes indecent material.
Fox is confused because the FCC does not issue clear standards about what is and is not acceptable on TV and radio. The agency believes that doing so would amount to censorship, so they only sanction broadcasters once a show has aired. The obvious problem here is that broadcasters never know in advance if a show will be found indecent; the end result is self-censorship by networks trying to avoid the FCC’s wrath.
The justices grilled both parties to a crispy golden brown (watch the video at C-SPAN) and showed tremendous skepticism toward many of the FCC’s claims. Because the agency’s powers to regulate indecency rarely receive a court hearing, the case could be an important one. It’s too early to know how the court will rule (the decision is not expected for several more months), but the ruling could curtail the FCC’s power to regulate broadcast content.
This should be a great hit to the FCC. I believe Fox’s responce went something like this in the past:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeEiRXdOV9Q]
But to rob the FCC of it’s power before a judge… maybe free speech will return to television!
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