TV Watchdog: FCC Ruling 'One Great Mish-Mash of Imprecision'
by Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
January 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - A pro-family spokesman says the FCC's decision yesterday to dismiss more than 30 complaints against indecent programming points to the need for a new kind of leadership at the federal agency.The Federal Communications Commission announced on Monday (January 24) that it had turned aside 36 complaints that various television stations had aired indecent material during a variety of programs. The three dozen complaints, filed by the Parents Television Council, cited content aired during the so-called "family hour" over the past three years -- including a high school teacher referring to one of his students as 'a big d--k'; criminals hiring a prostitute to have sex with a horse; and jokes about pedophilia and Michael Jackson's genitals. But the FCC said that, "in context, none of the segments were patently offensive under contemporary community standards."
The PTC's executive director, Tim Winter, asks, "By what community standard is it not patently offensive during the family hour to broadcast these things? We're talking about content here that major national newspapers refused to publish."
According to Winter, several notable newspapers refused to print ads submitted by the PTC containing dialogue from one of the TV programs. He says the publications declined the ads, describing them as "too explicit," "not acceptable for family viewing," and containing "a number of words and descriptions ... that we do not accept in this newspaper."
It is not only the FCC's ruling that has critics upset; the method by which the FCC came to its decision has also irked a lot of people -- Winter among them, obviously. But a member of the FCC itself, Commissioner Michael Copps, says the agency simply lumped the complaints together under two separate orders and, without really fully investigating any of them, threw them all out.
"In these two orders," writes Copps, "the Commission combines 36 unrelated complaints with no apparent rhyme or reason other than that they concern television broadcasts. The Commission then denies these complaints with hardly any analysis of each individual broadcast." Using such an approach, he says, serves "neither concerned consumers nor the broadcast industry."
Winter agrees, putting it rather bluntly: "The FCC abandoned its public interest responsibility by lumping all 36 complaints into one great mish-mash of imprecision."
Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the American Family Association, says Copps is right to be upset. "You don't go before a court of law and the judge finds someone innocent without examining the evidence," Sharp says. "But here's what the FCC did. They sided with the television networks and, without ever reviewing or looking at the show[s], they made a decision that it was not indecent."
Last week FCC Chairman Michael Powell announced his resignation, which pro-family leaders say provides an excellent opportunity for President Bush to make some much-needed changes. The PTC's Winter has a suggestion.
"We must have an FCC Chairman who will take this issue seriously, and we believe such a candidate exists with FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin," Winter says. "We strongly recommend the president nominate him to be chairman of the FCC."
