FCC's Policy of Fining Indecent Language Rebuffed

In a legal battle between Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and mammoth TV channels for the airing of blurted profanities, the channels received victory and FCC was made to lick dust.

The federal court issued new guidelines on Monday, which prohibited the usage of vulgar language or actions aired by stations and networks. According to the new government policy, these stations would have been penalized if they would have aired any explicit content.

The decision was made to stop "fleeting expletives," or "blurted profanities”, on television, both network executives and top officials at the Federal Communications Commission said “the opinion could gut the ability of the commission to regulate any speech on television or radio.”

To fortify their policy, the FCC quoted the example of Mr. Bush, who had used vulgar language with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain last July, and would be penalized under the new policy.

During a Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, Mr. Bush told Mr. Blair, "See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this [expletive], and it's over."

These policies laid down by the FCC were snubbed away by the U.S appeals court, who overruled federal regulators. The verdict was written by Judge Rosemary Pooler, who was backed up by Judge Peter Hall, both the appointees of Clinton.

The FCC findings for explicit content aired on television began with NBC. A case was then registered for obscenity uttered by U2 singer Bono during the Golden Globes ceremony in 2003.

The laws posed by the federal court were not supported by any television channel as it is not their fault if people utter vulgar language in a fit of fury or anger.

"We find that the FCC's new policy regarding 'fleeting expletives' fails to provide a reasoned analysis justifying its departure from the agency's established practice," said the decision by a divided panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

"In recent times even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced sexual or excretory organs or activities."

Kevin Martin, chairman of the FCC, still hoping to enforce their policy, said that they are thinking whether to take the case to the appeals court or directly to the Supreme Court.

The four major TV channels- Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC, won the battle with FCC, who have been sent back to the commission to rewrite their indecency policy.

All the networks heralded the decision taken by the court and praised the verdict. "We are very pleased with the court's decision and continue to believe that the government regulation of content serves no purpose other than to chill artistic expression in violation of the First Amendment," said Scott Grogin, a senior vice president at Fox. "Viewers should be allowed to determine for themselves and their families, through the many parental control technologies available, what is appropriate viewing for their home."

However, FCC's Mr. Martin was rather sad for the court’s decision, calling it ‘bizarre’. He held that he feels sorry for the American families as now they will be exposed to vulgar languages and Hollywood studios can show anything they want to.