NYT: F.C.C. Rebuffed by Court on Indecency Fines

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/business/media/05decency.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

F.C.C. Rebuffed by Court on Indecency Fines

By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: June 5, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 4 — If President Bush and Vice President Cheney can use vulgar language, then the government cannot punish others for doing the same thing on television.

That, in essence, was the decision today when a federal appeals court struck down the government policy of fining stations and networks that broadcast programs with profanity.

The decision, by a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, was a sharp rebuke for the Federal Communications Commission and for the Bush administration. It was a major victory in a legal battle being waged by the four television networks — Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC — that had filed the case.

Beginning with its indecency finding in a case against NBC for an obscenity uttered by the U2 singer Bono during the Golden Globes ceremony in 2003, President Bush’s Republican and Democratic appointees to the commission have imposed a tougher indecency policy by punishing any station that used what was known as a “fleeting expletive,” or blurted profanity. Reversing decades of more lenient policy, the commission had found that the mere utterance of profane words implied sexual or excretory acts and therefore violated the indecency rules.

But in striking down the commission’s interpretation, the appeals court noted that “in recent times even the top leaders of our government has used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced sexual or excretory organs or activities.”

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[donheld]

1. Am I alone in thinking this is a big slap

to the Bushies? :D

[babylonsister]

2. That's what I'm thinking, too, and I love it!

:woohoo: