In an interesting ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a panel of judges said that broadcasting unscripted expletives does not violate decency standards. Ruling in favor of Fox and its affiliates, the majority said:
We find that the FCC's new policy regarding 'fleeting expletives' fails to provide a reasoned analysis justifying its departure from the agency's established practice...
In light of the Janet Jackson SuperBowl "thing," Congress increased per incident fines, and with the FCC changes in enforcement, comments at "live" events had generated some hefty fines for broadcast networks and their affiliates. More importantly, it had a "chilling" effect on the broadcast of events like "Saving Private Ryan" where profanity and the harshness of war is part of the script.
While I hope this doesn't increase the incidents of "fleeting expletives" on broadcast television, I agree with the court (but remember IANAL!).
My favorite part of the Reuters article was the description of the "oral" arguments:
Both sides presented oral arguments to the appeals court in December 2006, an unusual proceeding that featured the expletives uttered aloud by the Fox lawyer and the judges themselves in discussing the case.
Make your own joke -- just keep it clean!
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