By The Special Guests Publicity Service
FOX TV REFUSES TO PAY FCC INDECENCY FINES
Claiming Constitutional Right to Air Naked Whipped Cream-Covered Strippers
On Feb. 22, 2008, the FCC issued a Forfeiture Order against 13 Fox TV Network stations, determining that the stations violated the broadcast indecency law when they aired an episode of Married by America that focused on adult-only parties featuring sexually oriented entertainment provided by nude or semi-nude female and male “strippers.”
The FCC had first proposed fining all 169 Fox-owned and affiliate stations a total of $1.2 million in 2004 for airing a 2003 episode of Married by America, which featured digitally obscured nudity and whipped cream-covered strippers. Later they reduced the fines toward only 13 Fox affiliates and a $91,000 fine.
Despite the fines being reduced to less than 10 percent of the original amount, Fox TV still blatantly refused to pay the fines. On March 24, 2008, Fox TV stated that it would not pay its part of the $91,000 fine, asserting that the FCC decision is “arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with precedent and patently unconstitutional.”
Robert Peters, President of Morality in Media, is conducting interviews on this subject. Here are some of his comments:
“The FCC is to be commended for issuing a Forfeiture Order against Fox TV Network stations for airing program content that one might expect to see in a burlesque show, not in a medium that reaches into almost every American home and at a time of day when most children are still watching TV.
“I still remember my father talking about burlesque when I was a child; but neither my father nor any other sane adult of the ‘great generation’ would have recommended moving the burlesque stage from an ‘adults only’ performance hall to a public park so that everyone could share in the good times.
“As MIM’s long-time general counsel Paul McGeady once put it, ‘TV . . . communications partake of the nature of a public thoroughfare (albeit an electromagnetic one), and what may be prohibited on the public street [or park] should be equally prohibited on TV . . . ‘
“Once upon a time, TV broadcasters understood that their audience consisted of a cross section of the community, including children of all ages, and acted accordingly.
“Today, broadcast TV networks seem to care less about who is exposed to their programming, caring more about is Nielsen ratings, which continue to decline in proportion to the degree that the networks trample on community standards, while parading under an ACLU-styled banner of ‘free speech.’
“Despite their protestations, however, the problem is not that TV broadcasters can no longer discern community standards. The problem is that the networks no longer care about those standards.
“Nor is the problem that most Americans will no longer watch decent programming that uplifts or enriches the human spirit. The problem is that the media is dominated by individuals who have utter contempt for mainstream values and who confuse pushing the envelope with genuine creativity.”
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Our Mission at Special Guests: To obey God as He leads us in matching Judeo-Christian guests with talk show hosts to disseminate vital information that ministers to the physical and spiritual well being of listeners and viewers.
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Beachwood Resources:
* “FCC Refuses To Pay FCC Indecency Fine,” The Washington Post
* “FCC Sucks, Says Google Lawyer,” WebProNews
* “Tell It To The FCC,” The Beachwood Reporter
Posted on March 26, 2008