Our view on broadcast behavior: Technology outpaces FCC in crackdown on obscenity
Raise your hand if you remember the December 2002 Billboard Music Awards on Fox-TV wh ere Cher accepted a "Lifetime Achievement" trophy. No? How about U2 lead singer Bono's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes on NBC the next month?
(Photo - Cher: Used expletive when referring to critics in speech / 2002 Getty Images)
Cher and Bono each uttered an expletive that triggered a government crackdown on TV broadcasters and a five-year battle that landed at the U.S. Supreme Court this month.
The court will determine for the first time since 1978 how far the government can go to police what's on television.
For the record, here's what started the ruckus: Cher said critics had been predicting for 40 years that she was on her way out, adding, "So f—- 'em." At the Golden Globes, Bono called his award "really, really f——— brilliant!"
Not exactly family fare, obviously, and over time viewers complained, as did assorted members of Congress and a group called the Parents Television Council, which seeks to reduce indecency in the entertainment industry. With the Federal Communications Commission already poised for an attempt to regulate indecency on television, the result was inevitable. Tossing aside nearly three decades of precedent, the FCC decided for the first time in 2004 to sanction broadcasters for an isolated, one-time use of the "F-word."
The FCC has gradually added to its list of targets, including two expletives used by Nicole Richie on the 2003 Billboard Music Awards, Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show and an episode of Married By America, a show so tacky and unappealing that it was killed after a few episodes in 2003.
All this comes from good intentions. Network television has grown both cruder and more sexually explicit over the years, leaving many a family uncomfortably surprised. The Jackson episode, for instance, drew a lot of the 1.4 million complaints the FCC received in 2004. Nonetheless, the FCC's response is as outdated as Ozzie and Harriet.
The Internet, which claims more of most kids' time, makes network TV look tame, as do cable and satellite TV, which are beyond the FCC's reach because they make no use of public airwaves. Further, televisions now come equipped not only with channel changers but also with V-chips that let parents block any program they wish. Even the Parents Television Council, which favors government intervention and heavy fines, offers a more effective tool for concerned parents on its website: a weekly guide to programs that are — and are not — family friendly.
Now which is more effective: those options or FCC fines? Last month's $91,000 penalty against 13 Fox stations for Married By America came nearly five years after the offending episode ran. Fox is appealing.
When the Supreme Court rules, it may find that the FCC has authority to do this kind of thing. But that doesn't make it smart.
Broadcasting has changed so radically from the days when families gathered to watch The Ed Sullivan Show that neither government finger-wagging nor fines will bring them back. Paternal bureaucrats trying to dictate taste by dragging broadcasters through courts are just no match for viewers who can kill a show by refusing to watch it.