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Score one for the F.C.C. The Federal Communications Commission just got the Supreme Court in its camp in its attempt to regulate cursing on television.
The issue at hand is the FCC's "fleeting expletives" policy, which would charge broadcasters fines for even one four-letter word on live T.V. The policy was implemented in 2004 after U2's Bono dropped an F-bomb during the Golden Globes. The FCC also has more stringent definition of an "indecent word" to include anything involving sex and excrement.
The highest court voted (5-4) Tuesday to refuse to pass judgment on whether the policy violates First Amendment free speech rights, passing the issue to a federal appeals court to weigh whether or not the policy is constitutional. The key to today's news is the fact that it throws out a New York Appeals court ruling that found in favor of a Fox TV challenge to FCC policy about swearing slip-ups from Cher and Nicole Richie at the Billboard Music Awards in 2002 and 2003.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens, who dissented along with the two other liberal judges, raised serious constitutional concerns that the ruling disregards the context of how words are used. Often, if not most of the time, the two big curse words are used as exclamations, with no contextual reference to sex or excrement. For Ginsburg and Stevens, context matters.
Truth is, despite the crackdown, the F.C.C.'s power is waning. The regulatory body only oversees broadcast TV and radio, but these days tens of millions of Americans have cable and Satellite TV, let alone all the content that's accessible online. The average U.S. home receives over 100 channels, and only a handful of them are regulated.
It seems that as the FCC loses control over a growing percent of the content Americans consume, it's more determined to make sure those four broadcast channels are squeaky clean. But the broadcast nets will continue to host live celebrity-studded events, and starlets have been known to curse. So unless the federal appeals court rules differently, the four major broadcast nets will continue to pay the FCC the equivalent of a mouth washed out with soap.
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