{"id":7149,"date":"2006-04-15T10:19:42","date_gmt":"2006-04-15T14:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7149"},"modified":"2006-04-15T10:19:42","modified_gmt":"2006-04-15T14:19:42","slug":"networks-turn-tables-on-fcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/networks-turn-tables-on-fcc\/","title":{"rendered":"Networks turn tables on FCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

For months, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has quietly been waging a one-sided war<\/a> against broadcast indecency. The [tag]networks[\/tag], worried about government punishment and fines, have tried to keep the [tag]FCC[\/tag] happy.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, however, the networks reversed course and decided to go on the offensive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a move that seems certain to force a showdown over what constitutes indecency on the airwaves, four TV broadcast networks and their affiliates announced Friday that they had united to challenge a Federal Communications Commission ruling that deemed language used in several of their shows [tag]indecent[\/tag].<\/p>\n

CBS, Fox, ABC and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. filed notices of appeal in federal court in New York and Washington late Thursday and early Friday.<\/p>\n

They are seeking to overturn a March 15 ruling that found some broadcasts of the CBS News program “The Early Show,” “Billboard Music Awards” on Fox and ABC’s drama “NYPD Blue” to be indecent because they contained variations on two [tag]obscenities[\/tag]: what people on both sides of the issue refer to as the “F-word” and the “S-word.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That March ruling seemed to be one step too far for the industry. In a joint statement released by more than 800 TV stations, the industry called the ruling unconstitutional and argued that any obscenities contained in the programs were “fleeting, isolated — and in some cases unintentional.”<\/p>\n

“The FCC overstepped its authority in an attempt to regulate content protected by the 1st Amendment, acted arbitrarily and failed to provide broadcasters with a clear and consistent standard for determining what content the government intends to penalize,” the statement said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tom Fontana, a veteran producer, argues that the FCC’s threats and penalties have led to a chilling effect. Without yesterday’s lawsuits, Fontana said, “are we one step away from the FCC telling NBC’s Brian Williams that he can’t do a story about teen sex because it’s indecent?”<\/p>\n

This one has all the makings of a great legal fight. Something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For months, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has quietly been waging a one-sided war against broadcast indecency. The [tag]networks[\/tag], worried about government punishment and fines, have tried to keep the [tag]FCC[\/tag] happy. Yesterday, however, the networks reversed course and decided to go on the offensive. In a move that seems certain to force a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}