Author Topic: USSC to weigh in on policing TV  (Read 5155 times)

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Offline CaseAgainstFaith

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USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« on: January 10, 2012, 09:25:36 am »
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The Supreme Court is considering whether government regulators may still police the airwaves for curse words and other coarse content at a time when so many Americans have unregulated cable television, and the Internet is awash in easily accessible adult material.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in a First Amendment case that pits the Obama administration against the nation's television networks. The material at issue includes the isolated use of expletives as well as fines against broadcasters who showed a woman's nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of ABC's "NYPD Blue."

The broadcasters want the court to overturn a 1978 decision that upheld the Federal Communications Commission's authority to regulate both radio and television content, at least during the hours when children are likely to be watching or listening. That period includes the prime-time hours before 10 p.m.

At the very least, the networks say the FCC's current policy is too hard to figure out, penalizing the use of particular curse words on awards programming but not in the airing of the movie "Saving Private Ryan," for example.

The administration said that even with the explosion of entertainment options, broadcast programming remains dominant. It also needs to be kept as a dependable "safe haven" of milder programming, the administration said.

Nearly nine out of 10 households subscribe to cable or satellite television and viewers can switch between broadcast and other channels by pushing a button on their remote controls. "People have really lost track of which stations are broadcast stations," said Paul Smith, a partner with the Jenner and Block law firm who has argued First Amendment cases at the Supreme Court.

But supporter of regulation said the media companies that own television networks also have movie studios, cable channels and other outlets where they are free to run whatever they wish.

Even on television, the rules only apply between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., noted Tim Winter, president of the pro-regulation Parents Television Council. "Radio and television broadcasters already have the ability to be as indecent as they want after 10 p.m."

The FCC policy under attack flowed from the 1978 Pacifica decision, which upheld the FCC's reprimand of a New York radio station for airing a George Carlin monologue containing a 12-minute string of expletives in the middle of the afternoon.

For many years, the FCC did not take action against broadcasters for one-time uses of curse words. But, following several awards shows with cursing celebrities in 2002 and 2003, the FCC toughened its longstanding policy after it concluded that a one-free-expletive rule did not make sense in the context of keeping the airwaves free of indecency when children are likely to be watching television.

source - http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57355848/supreme-court-weighs-policing-curse-words-on-tv/

I understand the time when this was needed, back when there was only 1 or 2 radio stations (tv didn't exist at the formation of this policing) the need for policing the radio.  But in this day and age when you at least have 12 local channels and if you have cable/satellite upwards of 500, should you find something indecent it isn't nearly as hard as to just turning the channel.  I say down with the policing of radio and TV stations.
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Offline DasFuchs

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2012, 09:28:51 am »
I would only support this in one small instance, this policing beat Fox up and made them either start being honest or kill the network
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Offline Smurfette Principle

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2012, 09:47:56 am »
I don't know. I know I was kept incredibly innocent until I was quite old because all we had was broadcast TV. I didn't even know you could have sex or swear on television until I accidentally came across True Blood while browsing through the cable channels when I was sixteen. If they got rid of certain restrictions, then the argument of "well, just make sure your children only watch these things" goes out the window, because everything would be allowed to contain adult content. My mom, who did supervise what we watched, would never have let me graduate from PBS to Numb3rs if the show hadn't been in that slot.

Offline Vypernight

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2012, 09:50:54 am »
Glad our tax dollars are going to something useful.  Why use them to fix the economy when we have people saying, "Fuck!" on national TV?  It's not like people use that language out in the streets.
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Offline Oriet

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2012, 10:38:18 am »
I don't feel it's the place of the FCC to enforce such regulation, especially since they've only limited it to swear words and nudity while allowing incredibly graphic violence. Each station, broadcast or otherwise, has the right to air the content they want, including restricting nudity, swearing, violence, etc, and I know there will be stations that restrict such content.

Swear words are just that, words. It doesn't matter if you say "We are so fucked" or "We are so humped", as they both mean the same thing. Kids hear such words off of television as well, either from hearing conversations a the mall, the playground, the bus, or the classroom (even assuming their parents and siblings aren't using them at home).

As for nudity, well, part of the reason the US has such a hangup on it is because we're so prudish that it's held to a high taboo. Which, interestingly and understandably, leads to exploitive near nudity for adverts because our society has made it into a forbidden fruit.

For those that feel we should maintain enforced restriction, I ask this. Give a solid reason for the benefit of keeping swear words and nudity off the air that is not rooted in religion or personal preference.
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Offline ironbite

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2012, 11:50:38 am »
Oh this is gonna be a good fight.

Ironbite-if the policing is struck down, we might just have ourselves a country.

Offline Jack Bauer

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2012, 10:47:10 am »
So how does the legislation cover, for example, people who live in the Central time zone who are able to receive TV broadcasts from transmitters in EST. Do they get an illicit hour of naughtiness between 9pm and 10pm?
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Offline ThunderWulf

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2012, 11:10:54 am »
I don't feel it's the place of the FCC to enforce such regulation, especially since they've only limited it to swear words and nudity while allowing incredibly graphic violence. Each station, broadcast or otherwise, has the right to air the content they want, including restricting nudity, swearing, violence, etc, and I know there will be stations that restrict such content.

Yeah, that's always struck me as kinda hypocritical.
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Offline kefkaownsall

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2012, 11:52:55 am »
Seeing as the California law was struck down I'm guessing 7-2 in favor of weakening the FCC

Offline Meshakhad

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2012, 06:17:58 pm »
I have a rather amusing mental image of the Supreme Court releasing a profanity-laden statement restricting the FCC.
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Offline Osama bin Bambi

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2012, 06:34:46 pm »
The government and the FCC really shouldn't be policing media like that. TV stations know what will and won't fly with their viewers. They can police themselves.
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Offline N. De Plume

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2012, 07:30:26 pm »
If this is struck down, I think there should be a campaign to remind people that their TVs have a V-chip. Help out people that feel the need to police the content they receive.
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Offline TheL

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2012, 08:19:51 pm »
If this is struck down, I think there should be a campaign to remind people that their TVs have a V-chip. Help out people that feel the need to police the content they receive.

So?  How the fuck do you use it?
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Offline N. De Plume

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2012, 08:32:12 pm »
If this is struck down, I think there should be a campaign to remind people that their TVs have a V-chip. Help out people that feel the need to police the content they receive.

So?  How the fuck do you use it?
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Offline VirtualStranger

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Re: USSC to weigh in on policing TV
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2012, 09:14:39 pm »
Just about every device you can hook up to a TV nowadays has it's own parental controls anyway, So the V-chip thing isn't even that necessary.