Trying to Define Indecency – Again

The late boundary-pushing comedian George Carlin once sparked a Supreme Court case after his “Seven Dirty Words” act aired on broadcast radio. The Federal Communication Commission then had the ability to regulate indecencies between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. because of children’s ease of access during those times.

That was in 1978.

Not much has changed in the way of regulation of broadcast radio and television, but it’s back to the court room for television indecency.

Fox Television Stations is offering the argument that the broadcast industry be able to regulate itself, much like the motion picture industry with its voluntary rating system.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in the argument transcript, said “What the government is asking for, is a few channels were you can say … they are not going to hear the s-word, the f-word. They are not going to see nudity.”

IPFW senior Kelli Jones said she appreciates regulations on television mainly for “the children’s sake.”

“I can’t imagine watching tv and having ‘f-this’ be every other word,” she said, adding that she’d be worried that sort of language would become commonplace.

In an age where what may be restricted on a television show is readily available online, many feel regulation of broadcast is futile.

The FCC has its argument ground in that broadcast operates on public airwaves and users agree to regulations when they get a license to use those airwaves. The content regulations don’t apply to cable, satellite or Internet mainly because users have to pay for the service and are therefore choosing to have access to the content. Now, those who want broadcast need to have a converter box which varies in price.

The whole argument spurred humor in many ways. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seemingly argued against the FCC in that their regulation was inconsistent: “NYPD Blue” was punished for nudity but not “Schindler’s List” or the profanity in broadcast of “Saving Private Ryan.”

“And I do think that that is the major objection, that we have a … government agency that is going to make decisions about when nudity is okay and when it isn’t,” Ginsburg said.

“It’s like nobody can use dirty words or nudity except for Steven Spielberg,” said Justice Elena Kagan. “… There’s a lot of room here for FCC enforcement on the basis of what speech they think is kind of nice and proper and good.”

America is in a digital age though, and according to Nielsen Wire, 290 million Americans own at least one television, while 211 million are online—116 million ages 13 and up also access the mobile Web. Alongside those statistics, Nielsen announced streaming on game consoles is more popular than before.

“Streaming now represents a reported 14 percent of Xbox 360 time, 15 percent of PS3 time and 33 percent of Wii time,” according to a December 2011 announcement by Nielsen. “This growth is fueled by the availability of services like Netflix, Hulu, MLB Network and ESPN 3.”

As of yet, the Supreme Court hasn’t made a decision.