December 13, 2003
Keeping the US airwaves clean.
Don't worry about media concentration — worry about those bad words that people are saying on the air. That appears to be the thinking of Doug Ose, a Republican member of Congress from California, who is worried the FCC's rules against the use of indecent language by US broadcasters doesn't provide enough protection for innocent ears.
For reasons that are too complicated to explain here, there are only seven words that have been legally determined to be unsuitable for broadcast. Other indecent and obscene language is governed by FCC rulings, which are often inconsistent. Upset with how these inconsistencies play out when the FCC deals with complaints from viewers or listeners, Ose has proposed the 'Clean Airwaves Act, which would write the ban on the 'seven dirty words' into federal law.
Two incidents seem to have inspired Ose's proposed legislation: The first was U2 member Bono's use of the expression 'fuckin' brilliant' when he accepted a Golden Globe award on US television back in October. The second incident, and apparently the one that got under Ose's skin the worst, was the FCC's subsequent determination that Bono's language didn't violate existing indecency rules.
From Ose's remarks on the floor of the US House of Representatives on Dec. 8:
Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Clean Airwaves Act, legislation designed to prohibit seven profane words from being broadcast over America's airwaves. Existing guidelines and standards that govern our airwaves and communications mediums allow profane language to infiltrate the hearts and minds of our nation's youth. I rise today to protect our children from existing rules and regulations that leave them vulnerable to obscene, indecent, and profane speech through broadcast communication. [...]
The current FCC guidelines regarding indecency determinations aren't strong enough to stop harmful, indecent, and profane language broadcast over America's airwaves. It is wholly necessary to give the FCC the tools it needs in order to protect our broadcast airwaves. Currently under FCC policy, indecency determinations hinge on two factors. First, material must describe or depict sexual or excretory organs or activities. Second, the material must be patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium. The vagueness of this stipulation creates a loophole that inevitably allows specific profane language to be broadcast.
When the ownership of TV and radio stations is concentrated in the fewest hands at any time in the country's history — and when many broadcasters are shamelessly acting as shills for the government — aren't you glad that Representative Ose is making sure that our children won't suffer irreparable pain and harm as the result of someone saying the word 'fuck' on the air?
Some background: The use of 'indecent' language over the airwaves in the US has been the subject of much lobbying and legal action over the past three decade. Broadcasters have faced the nightmare of having to enforce vague FCC rules with the knowledge that they'll only know if they broke a rule if the FCC hits them with a fine. (As someone who spend 20 years in community radio, this magpie can tell you how difficult it was to keep the content of a station's programs within the FCC rules.)
If you aren't familiar with the history of the 'seven dirty words' and the FCC's rules governing 'indecency,' we can suggest some good places to start:
— The text of comic George Carlin's famous 1970s routine about the 'seven dirty words' that couldn't be broadcast is here.
— The text of the US Supreme Court's ruling in Pacifica v. FCC, which resulted from a broadcast of Carlin's routine by a community radio station, is here.
— The text (in PDF format) of the FCC's 2001 guidelines for broadcasters regarding its regulation of indecent language is here.