Complaints to FCC Over Use of 'F-Word' Top 150,000 917/6983794
by Jenni Parker
November 26, 2003
(AgapePress) - The American Family Association has announced that, to date, more than 150 thousand of its supporters have sent letters to the Federal Communications Commission, criticizing the agency's recent ruling that the use of the "f-word" on radio and TV was allowable in certain contexts. The Enforcement Bureau of the FCC reviewed and summarily denied initial viewer and licensee complaints made after the f-word was used by a celebrity during the evening broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards ceremony last January.(See related story)The complaint letters were sent through AFA's web site, and the volume of e-mail received by the FCC was so great that the messages initially shut down the agency's e-mail system. However, the situation has been corrected, and the FCC is again accepting complaints.
"We were shocked that the FCC would approve the use of such profane language at any time, day or night," says Donald Wildmon, founder and chairman of AFA. He adds, "We are glad that many Representatives and Senators are calling on the FCC to review their recent ruling."
Among those calling on the FCC to rescind its ruling is U.S. Congressman Charles "Chip" Pickering of Mississippi, who recently wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, calling on the federal agency to reverse its ruling. Pickering wrote that he is "outraged and extremely disappointed with this latest salvo in a long string of decisions by the FCC that establish a deeply disturbing precedent regarding the use of universally-recognized vulgar expletives on our nation's airwaves."
The Congressman is calling on the FCC to "diligently enforce" the statues the U.S. legislature has set forth regarding profanity, obscenity, and indecency in public broadcasting. Meanwhile, AFA is continuing to urge concerned individuals to take action and let the federal commission know how the public feels about its ruling.
