Another 'F-Word' Incident Prompts Outcry from Pro-Family Groups
by Jenni Parker
December 12, 2003
(AgapePress) - A number of pro-family leaders are up in arms about the latest example of unchecked indecency being broadcast to the general public in the guise of entertainment. During the December 10 broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards show, a profane comment -- scripted for one of the stars of the TV show The Simple Life -- was uttered live, without a bleep from the censors or a peep from the FCC.About an hour into the Wednesday night broadcast, Nicole Richie appeared on the award show with her Simple Life co-star, socialite Paris Hilton. In a scripted conversation onstage, Richie asked, "Have you ever tried to get cowsh--t out of a Prada purse? It's not so f---ing simple." According to a December 12 New York Post article, the Fox Network claimed it was unable to bleep out the profanity and apologized for Richie's use of the foul words.
Bob Knight | |
But Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute says if Richie was following a script, then the network's apology is meaningless. "How hard is it to bleep out scripted words?" he says. "I'd like to see the FCC ask for more than an apology. This should cost them, big-time."While Fox claims the incident resulted from "a failure in the system designed to prevent such an occurrence," Knight says the failure in the system happened when Fox chose to push the envelope. Knight is among many pro-family activists who feel that the network was emboldened to ignore decency standards by the recent FCC ruling that excused rock star Bono's use of the "f-word" during another music awards show.
"It was wrong to let Bono's indiscretions slide," Knight says, "but if the FCC lets a major network get away with scripted profanity and a lame excuse, they'll be exposed as being more than asleep on the job; they'll be seen to be aiding and abetting the sleaze."
Another pro-family group, the Parents Television Council, has already filed an indecency complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over this latest incident and is again calling for Congress to investigate the FCC's lack of enforcement of commonsense decency standards.
PTC President Brent Bozell believes Fox's explanation was disingenuous, and says the network knew in advance that such dialogue was to be expected. In fact, he says, "Richie even appeared to be reading the dialogue from a teleprompter." The PTC has issued a statement condemning the Fox Television Network for its "utter disregard for the most basic level of community standards."
And Tim Winter, executive director of the PTC, says the organization condemns the FCC for creating a bureaucratic loophole that encourages broadcasters to air this "highly inappropriate language." He questions how the FCC's chairman could have been so naïve to assert that his Enforcement Bureau's Golden Globes ruling (addressing Bono's remarks) would not serve as apparent government acceptance of the same sort of behavior from other networks.
Calls for FCC House Cleaning
Some are pointing to these two f-word incidents and the Enforcement Bureau's apparent disregard as evidence of the "total breakdown of standards" at the FCC. OneMillionDads.com has reported that FCC's Commissioner Michael Copps has agreed to meet with American Family Association president Tim Wildmon in January to discuss concerns about its recent ruling. The activist site is urging people to send e-mails to the FCC letting them know their concerns.
But Focus on the Family vice president of public policy Tom Minnery is calling for some outside regulation. He wants Congress to "clean house" at the federal agency and remove the officials who allowed such vulgarity to poison the public airwaves.
"This latest assault on American families is just another indication that the FCC does not take its job seriously," Minnery says. The pro-family executive feels that TV broadcasters are growing bolder each year while the FCC "acts as if nothing is happening." He says the commission's Enforcement Bureau has become like Nero, playing his fiddle as Rome burns.
"We feared that the October ruling would open the floodgates to a further coarsening and degradation of the nation's airwaves, and what happened Wednesday confirms those fears," Minnery says, adding "it's clear that the FCC is completely ignoring its mandate to protect Americans from broadcast indecency."
Minnery suggested that Americans should flood the FCC with calls and e-mails demanding the reversal of its October ruling and an investigation of the Billboard Music Awards broadcast. He also encouraged citizens to call their U.S. senators and ask them to initiate hearings on the Commission's failure to enforce decency standards.
Focus on the Family's public policy and activism website, CitizenLink, has published the numbers of all five of the FCC's commissioners -- including that of Michael Copps, the only one that has come out against the profane programming. The ministry hopes concerned citizens will contact the commissioners and urge them to be more aggressive in punishing TV networks and individuals that flout the laws that governing those standards.
