Regulates comms on radio, TV, wire, satellite, and cable
Not censoring
Punishment after the fact
Not legal body
After complaints, levies fines against any broadcast medium that airs anything, including language, that is deemed “obscene, or indecent”
Indecency: material that depicts “sexual or excretory organs or activities” that do not rise to the legal level of obscenity “in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards”
Prohibits broadcasting indecent material outside of “safe harbor” (10pm – 6am window, when children are not watching)
FCC v. Pacifica 1973
Parent complains to FCC about hearing George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television routine on radio (WBAI, Pacifica) at 2pm with 15-year-old son
FCC grants complaint, calling routine “indecent though not obscene”
Pacifica appeals decision and lower court overturns
Calls FCC’s definition of indecency “overbroad”, “vague”, and violating free speech
In 5-4 decision, Supreme Court sided with FCC
Allowed FCC to fine, censor, and restrict speech after the fact
Justice John Paul Stevens: “When the [FCC] finds that a pig has entered the parlor [= a nuisance], the exercise of its regulatory power does not depend on proof that the pig is obscene”
In earlier case, nuisance was defined as a “right thing in the wrong place, like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard” by Justice George Sutherland
FCC timeline
1995: Parents Television Council (PTC) founded
2000: FCC received 111 indecency complaints
Issues $48K in fines
2001: President George Bush takes office
October 2003: U2’s Bono at Golden Globes
FCC receives 234 complaints that night
217 from PTC
Not indecent because not referring to sexual activities or excretory organs
Intensifier
February 2004: “Nipplegate” at Super Bowl XXXVIII
Janet Jackson & Justin Timberlake
FCC receives 56,000 from PTC
Went back on October decision
Intensifier but has sexual connotation, invokes a coarse sexual image
2004: FCC received >1M indecency complaints
Fines totaled $8M+
99.9% instigated by PTC
FCC and FOX television
New 2004 policy prohibited “single uses of vulgar words” including previous instances of “fleeting” expletives on FOX TV
2002: Billboard Music Awards, Cher said of her critics, “Fuck ‘em”
2003: Billboard Music Awards, Nicole Ritchie said, “Have you ever tried to get cowshit out of a Prada purse? It’s not so fucking simple.”
Lower Circuit court ruled for FOX saying FCC’s change of policy was “arbitrary and capricious”
FCC v. FOX (2009)
Supreme Court ruled in favor of FCC 5-4
About-face on “fleeting expletives” was not “arbitrary and capricious”
Sent constitutionality issue down to lower court
FCC v. FOX TV (2012)
Supreme Court unanimously overturns FCC’s fines, calling them “unconstitutionally vague”
Reaffirms and upholds FCC v. Pacifica (1973), FCC’s authority to regulate language on TV
Censorship power without actually censoring — self-regulation