BROADCAST DECENCY ISSUE ATTRACTING ATTENTION IN CONGRESS
The House Commerce Committee is expected to schedule a hearing on broadcast decency after it returns Jan. 20, industry and House sources said. A House source said the hearing hadn’t been scheduled formally but was expected in the 2nd session of the 108th Congress. The hearing follows a preliminary FCC decision not to fine several NBC affiliates for profanity uttered during the Golden Globe Awards show that drew the ire of several members and led to their introduction of legislation.
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As Congress wound up in Dec., members of both houses took to the floor to denounce the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Oct. 3 order that held singer Bono’s use of the “f-word” not to be indecent or obscene. A complaint was filed by the Parents TV Council (PTC) against several individual affiliates that aired the broadcast, including those owned and operated by NBC. In its ruling, the bureau determined that the utterance didn’t meet the obscenity standard because it didn’t appeal to a “prurient interest” (Bono used the term as an adjective). The decision also took into account the broadcast was live and the incident was isolated. The bureau’s order still could be considered by the full FCC.
But it was the bureau’s strict adherence to the indecency guidelines -- which exempted Bono’s comment because it wasn’t sexual or excretory -- that spurred members to act. Rep. Ose (R-Cal.), in introducing HR-3687, told the House that the FCC’s ruling sent the message that the Commission wouldn’t enforce decency standards. His bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Smith (R-Tex.), specified 8 words that would be defined as “profane.” The 8 words included variations of other words on the list. It tried to cover all variants by including hyphenates and all uses as verbs, gerunds, adjectives, participles and infinitives.
The Senate adopted a late-session resolution calling on the FCC to toughen its enforcement. The resolution, by Sen. Sessions (R-Ala.), said the FCC had leeway under the Pacifica Supreme Court ruling to enforce decency standards. It called on the full Commission to review the Bono decency case. It also said the agency should conduct more rigorous license renewal hearings with decency issues in mind. More than 30 House member wrote to the FCC Nov. 20 expressing their concern over the Commission’s not penalizing anyone in the Bono case.
Another award show controversy is likely to add to the furor. In Fox’s Dec. broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards, reality TV star Nicole Richie uttered the “f-word” several times. Fox since has apologized, but the PTC has called the apology a “sham” and said the company could have blocked the profanity. PTC Pres. Brent Bozell said: “It is becoming obvious that Fox wants this indecent language on the air as a way of shocking audiences and scoring cheap ratings points. This is the third time in a year that Fox included the f-word in a network broadcast, and in fact it was the 2002 Fox broadcast of the exact same program that contained Cher’s use of the f-word.”