FC: FCC belatedly rules that "The Real Slim Shady" is not indecent

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

FCC's ruling:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-02-23A1.pdf

Prudish FCC commissioner Michael Copps' shouldn't-let-the-bastards-off
public statement:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-218953A1.txt

Copps' attempts to outlaw the televised Victoria's Secret fashion show:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,48571,00.html

---

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,49682,00.html
   
   FCC Reversal: Eminem Not Obscene
   By Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
   2:00 a.m. Jan. 12, 2002 PST
   
   WASHINGTON -- Eminem's "The Real Slim Shady" has passed the
   nose-wrinkle test of the U.S. government's broadcast censors.
   
   This week the FCC decided that it would not punish a Pueblo, Colorado,
   radio station for airing a bleeped-out version of the wildly popular
   hit from "The Marshall Mathers LP."
   
   "We conclude that (KKMG-FM) did not violate the applicable statute or
   our indecency rule, and that no sanction is warranted," the FCC said
   in a five-page ruling (PDF).

   The fuss started back in July 2000, when a prudish KKMG-FM listener
   complained to the FCC that even the lyrics on the edited song were
   "indecent." (Excerpt from one version: "Will Smith don't gotta cuss in
   his raps to sell his records/ well I do, so fuck him and fuck you
   too!/ You think I give a damn about a Grammy?")
   
   After 11 months of painstaking analysis and repeated listens to "The
   Real Slim Shady" in the commission's Washington headquarters,
   officials in the FCC's Enforcement Bureau decided that the song was
   indecent, that KKMG-FM needed to be taught a lesson and that a fine of
   $7,000 seemed just about right.
   
   Since the Supreme Court ruled in the 1978 Pacifica case that the First
   Amendment's guarantee of free speech has nothing to do with
   broadcasting, the FCC has the power to ban smutty talk from 6 a.m. to
   10 p.m. Federal law says anyone who "utters any obscene, indecent or
   profane language by means of radio communication shall be fined under
   this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
   
   After careful perusal, the FCC decided two passages were "indecent."
   They included: "My bum is on your lips/ And if I'm lucky you might
   just give it a little kiss," and "When I'm 30 I'll be the only person
   in the nursing home flirting/ Pinching nurses' asses when I'm BLEEP or
   jerkin'"
   
   In its response, KKMG-FM argued that that the passage wasn't actually
   "jerkin'" -- a direct reference to masturbation -- but "Jergens," a
   more subtle reference to an alternative use of Jergens' Ultra Healing
   Lotion.

   [...remainder snipped...]



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