College Broadcasters Inc has asked the Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline on its proceeding on indecency enforcement. The organization represents hundreds of college and high school radio and TV signals, plus student webcasters. CBI has filed comments with the FCC asking the Commission to take a kinder and gentler stance towards student […]
As Matthew has previously reported, the FCC is currently seeking comments from the public about its policies related to the broadcast of indecent material. Lots of folks (apparently there are tens of thousands of comments) have been weighing in with opinions on the subject (the deadline is July 18), and several groups focused on the […]
Broadcasters are filing comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s request for feedback on the agency’s indecency rules, key portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court last year. NPR’s comments support replacing the FCC’s now defunct “fleeting expletive” policies (basically sanctions against even a few dirty words said on the fly) with an […]
I’ve been keeping an eye on the Federal Communications Commission’s proceeding on its indecency rules. It’s not looking good, from a First Amendment standpoint. Most of the comments seem to support more censorship. Some background: The FCC has been asking for public feedback on how stringently to enforce its broadcast indecency regulations since the Supreme […]
The Federal Communications Commission is asking the public for input on its indecency rules. Last summer the Supreme Court declared the FCC’s sanctions against “fleeting expletives” to be unacceptably vague, largely because the government didn’t give Fox and ABC TV “fair notice” about the relatively new regulations before fining them for various shows. “Regulated parties […]
An NPR review of The Expendables 2 that described the sequel as “190 years of ass whoop on the silver screen” has got some listeners pretty riled up. “I am a long time listener and I have noticed a trend lately where NPR has allowed inappropriate language over the air,” one wrote. “I am not a Puritan, […]
The extent of broadcaster fears of a Federal Communications Commission indecency fine were illustrated yet again on Wednesday, when NPR’s Fresh Air Bowdlerized the title of Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, soon to be released as a movie. “Imagine working in a homeless shelter,” Fresh Air host Dave Davies began […]
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Fox vs. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. That’s the case reviewing the First Amendment constitutionality of the FCC’s sanctions against Fox for broadcasting Cher and Nicole Richie’s famous “fleeting expletive” potty talk comments during the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards. Also attached to the case are Commission […]
Big news for broadcasters today, as the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a decision striking down the FCC’s indecency policy. According to the decision, the “FCC’s current policy fails constitutional scrutiny,” in large part because it is too vague and can lead broadcasters to shy away from airing programming, effectively […]
Ofcom (the United Kingdom’s equivalent of the FCC) has just published a new survey of which words British radio listeners and TV watchers don’t like, or sort of don’t like, or really object to, depending on the circumstances. The most important circumstance is whether the word was said pre- or post-“watershed”—post being the equivalent of […]
