FCC intensifies its crackdown
FCC Combing TV Tapes in Profanity Crackdown
By Brooks Boliek Reuters Wednesday, July 12, 2006; 1:34 AM
WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - In its continuing crackdown on on-
air profanity, the FCC has requested numerous tapes from broadcasters
that might include vulgar remarks from unruly spectators, coaches and
athletes at live sporting events, industry sources said.
Tapes requested by the commission include live broadcasts of football
games and NASCAR races where the participants or the crowds let loose
with an expletive. While commission officials refused to talk about
its requests, one broadcast company executive said the commission had
asked for 30 tapes of live sports and news programs.
“It looks like they want to end live broadcast TV,” said one
executive, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. “We already
know that they aren’t afraid to go after news.”
While live programming always has been problematic for broadcasters,
it has become even more difficult under tougher commission rules
approved in 2004. The new rules found that virtually any use of
certain expletives will be considered profane and indecent, even if
it is a slip of the tongue. In a March decision, the FCC found that
the CBS news program “The Early Show” violated its indecency rules
because of a profane slip-up but did not issue a fine because the
incident occurred before the new rules were instituted.
Live sports — amateur, college and professional — have long been a
broadcast programming staple. Broadcasters have spent enormous
amounts of money and energy to come up with ways to give audiences a
better feel for the action. As broadcasters vie for viewers,
technical advances that include such things as on-field microphones
and in-car cameras have become as important as the announcers.
“I don’t know how they are going to rule, but they asked us for tapes
with a specific emphasis on crowd noise,” said another TV executive,
who also requested anonymity. “If some bozo in the crowd calls the
ref an asshole, the commission is asking for a copy of the tape.”
A live, on-field event — albeit when no athletes were on the field
– during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, when Janet Jackson’s
breast was accidentally bared, helped reignite Washington’s interest
in the indecency issue. Since then there has been a highly charged
fight at the commission about just how far the commission can go in
restricting broadcasts.
Broadcasters last week split over whether the commission should be
allowed to get one of the premier indecency cases back from the
federal court in New York.
In a series of motions filed Friday in federal court in New York, Fox
and its affiliate group, CBS and NBC opposed an attempt this week by
the FCC to get a key indecency case back from the court.
The commission this month asked the same federal court for more time
to consider affiliates’ arguments that the agency erred in March when
it decided variations of specific swear words are likely are to be
indecent whenever broadcast, even if the words are uttered accidentally.
A delay would let affiliates contest the decisions before the
commission. The FCC contends that this is a necessary step before
arguing in court. The agency said ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates backed
its request.
Under federal court rulings and commission rules, material is
indecent if it “in context, depicts or describes sexual or excretory
activities or organs in a patently offensive manner as measured by
contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium.” Indecent
speech can be aired safely between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Under a new law approved by Congress and signed by President Bush,
broadcasters face fines of as much as $325,000 per violation, up from
a previous maximum of $32,500.