FCC Cracks Down on Broadcasts of Profanity

By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. communications regulators on Thursday went directly after profanity on television and radio broadcasts as part of a campaign to crack down on growing coarseness on the air. The Federal Communications Commission, using a part of federal law on profanity for the first time, said NBC television stations violated the law when they broadcast Irish rocker Bono of U2 shouting "f***ing brilliant" during a 2003 television award show. "This sends a signal to the industry that the gratuitous use of such vulgar language on broadcast television will not be tolerated," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a statement.

The commission overturned a controversial staff decision that the incident was not indecent because the objectionable word was used as an adjective and not in a sexual context. The network expressed regret for the broadcast but said it was not liable under the rules in place at the time.

"Bono's utterance was unacceptable and we regret it happened," NBC, which is owned by General Electric Co., said in a statement. "Today's decision confirms that the rules in place at that time did not subject broadcasters to strict liability for fleeting utterances in live broadcasts."

In a split decision, the FCC decided against levying fines on the NBC stations, although some commission members had wanted to do so.
"This may not be a case where a revocation of license is in order," said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who has demanded the agency take a tougher stand on indecency. "But neither is it a case that warrants no penalty at all." The agency did propose $27,500 fines against three radio stations for broadcasting the antics of on-air radio personalities. One of the stations, a Detroit outlet owned by Viacom Inc.'s Infinity Broadcasting unit, aired shock jock Howard Stern and others discussing explicit sexual techniques. A study released separately on Thursday by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan government watchdog, said half of the nearly $4 million of indecency fines proposed by the FCC since 1990 involved stations airing Stern's show.

More:http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=4604873

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