The watchdog group files in support of FCC authority to fine broadcasters for airing indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
PTC Files Supreme Court Brief On Decency
The Parents Television Council has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to affirm the FCC’s authority to fine broadcasters for airing indecent material between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. when children are likely to be in the audience.
After years of wrangling over unedited profanity on Fox during a Billboard Awards show and nudity on ABC’s NYPD Blue, the U.S. Supreme Court announced in June it would hear arguments regarding the television decency law.
“If broadcasters want to air f-bombs or depictions of titillating bathroom scenes involving children and nude women, they can wait until 10 p.m. when children aren’t likely to be in the audience. That is all the current law requires of broadcasters. And the constitutionality of that law should be affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court,” said PTC President Tim Winter.
“By virtue of an FCC-granted license, broadcasters are afforded free use of the publicly-owned airwaves — an asset that has been valued at upwards of half a trillion dollars. One term of that license is not to air indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
“Despite cries of a ‘chilling effect’ and ‘censorship’ from the industry and their agents, the FCC’s broadcast decency enforcement regime does not affect whether the TV networks can broadcast indecent material; it only affects when they can do so.,” Winter continued.
“If broadcasters are truly unable to refrain from airing indecent material when children are most likely to be watching television, they simply do not deserve a broadcast license. For live broadcasts, a several-second delay is an easy and reasonable precaution.
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“The White House, Congress and the Supreme Court have all recognized that protecting children is of paramount importance, especially considering the pervasiveness of foul language and the coarsening of entertainment in general. PTC research showed a 69.3% increase in profanity on prime-time broadcast programming between 2005 and 2010, the biggest gains involving four letter words starting with ‘f’ and ‘s.’
“This case will determine whether the indecency statute will be reduced to a polite fiction that can be safely ignored at the expense of American children and families. We strongly urge the Court to uphold the FCC’s enforcement policy as a constitutionally valid, logical extension of Pacifica,” Winter concluded.
Comments (1)
Scott Pierce says:
September 15, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Not to condone indicency and or foul language on broadcast TV, but certanly this folks from PTC go way too far on this issue. The excuse that children might be watchig is way oversused and certainly without merit. Children are more exposed to language and indicency at school and home. Can PTC sensor parents and other children from using profanity?
As a father of 2 grown children and one still a child. I can say with 100% centainty that my children did not use indicent language because they wasn’t sposed to it. They didn’t because we (them and I) talked about it, and were told that they were not allowed to use it. Is that simple. If something is offensive to you, or your children, change the channel. IT IS THAT SIMPLE….