The SCOTUS-FCC Follies on Election Day

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: November 8, 2008 12:44:24 AM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The SCOTUS-FCC Follies on Election Day

[Note:  This item comes from friend Janos Gereben.  DLH]

From: janosG <janosg () gmail com>
Date: November 7, 2008 9:11:45 AM PST
To: Dewayne <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: The SCOTUS-FCC Follies on Election Day

<http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/carroll/>

Jon Carroll
SF Chronicle/November 7, 2008
These are some of the things that happened on Nov. 4, 2008, election  
day:

-- The Supreme Court debated whether the Federal Communications  
Commission was correct in fining the Fox network for unscripted use of  
offensive words by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie. Bono and Cher both  
used adjectival forms of a commonly heard expletive that is, in some  
contexts, a rude synonym for sexual intercourse; Richie, more  
creatively inclined, used several expletives while describing the  
difficulty of getting cow manure out of a Prada purse.
To sum it up: It is difficult indeed.

The stakes are high. The FCC fined the network $50,000 per station for  
the gaffes. In doing so, it claimed the unilateral ability to decide  
what words were offensive, in what contexts they were offensive,  
precisely how offensive they were and how large the penalties should  
be. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg noted, the FCC had determined that  
the swearing in "Saving Private Ryan" was OK - even though a lot of  
stations bleeped the words anyway - whereas the swearing by blues  
musicians in a Martin Scorsese documentary was a threat to civilized  
discourse.

This despite the fact that the actors in "Saving Private Ryan" were  
reciting scripted lines, while the blue musicians were just making  
offhand comments. Of course, the musicians were not involved in  
pretending to kill Nazis when they used the unacceptable words.

Justice John Paul Stevens inquired about the word "dung." The  
government lawyer said "probably" that would not be offensive. Stevens  
also suggested an interesting standard: If a joke was funny enough, it  
could escape sanctions. Although the FCC is already at work on its  
funny-o-meter, the government had no comment.

<snip>
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