Message discipline

The Washington Post reported on Monday that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

tossed out an indecency ruling against Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network yesterday and broadly questioned whether the Federal Communications Commission has the right to police the airwaves for offensive language. ...

In 2004, the agency reversed years of policy and effectively branded even "fleeting," or one-time, use of an expletive off-limits on broadcast television and radio, angering Hollywood, which warned of a chilling effect on programming.

The court ruled yesterday that the FCC had not adequately, or constitutionally, explained why it changed its mind on the fleeting use of profanity and ordered the agency to retool its regulations,

calling the new policy "arbitrary and capricious."

Okay, personally I think it's a good thing that a TV station or network can't be fined for a "fleeting" shit or fuck (fines which could reach $350,000 per incident), especially since the most noted cases occurred on live TV, which is obviously much harder to police. (And using a tape delay for bleeping is more complex on TV than on radio, which involves only audio, not video.) But, as is often true, it's the little things that get me.

"I'm disappointed in the court's ruling," FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said in an interview. "I think the commission had done the right thing in trying to protect families from that kind of language, and I think it's unfortunate that the court in New York has said that this kind of language is appropriate on TV." ...

The Parents Television Council, which has sent hundreds of thousands of indecency complaints to the FCC in recent years, criticized the ruling. The group's president, Tim Winter, said in a statement that "a court in New York City has cleared the way for television networks to use the f-word and s-word in front of children at any time of the day."

I was quite amused by the fact that both of these reactionaries, who apparently think that the occasional "fuck" is the most serious issue in public communications today, went out of their way to mention that the court was in (gasp!) New York City.

I was reminded of nothing so much as that a few years ago there was a series of TV commercials for Pace salsa, which revolved around these Old West cowboy types discovering that the "other" salsa was made in New York City. "NEW - YORK - CITY!" they scream in horror, with the ad mercifully ending before the inevitable physical assault on the poor schmuck who served the offending sauce. Martin and Winter would have fit right in with the cast.

Happily, which is partly why I can just be amused (the other part being the dictum that laughter is not only the best medicine, it is often the best weapon), those sorts of buttons just don't seem to be as hot as they once were. Even the "Hollywood" button is cooling off. Frankly, what with the war and other parts of reality to worry about, people just don't seem to get as worked up about winger nonsense as they used to.