Last weekend, one in every six people in the world watched Justin Timberlake sexually harass Janet Jackson on live television. An act which would get someone fired and sued in the real world was deemed okay for public television. Surprised?
If anyone was, they shouldn't have been. A news story the week before promised "shocking surprises" during the show. Another clue was that MTV, a network known for their family-friendly programming, organized the whole affair.
The public's outrage was heard by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Chairman Michael Powell immediately ripped the event as a "crude, crass and deplorable stunt" and ordered a full investigation into the entire performance.
What's fascinating is it took something like this to get the FCC moving. People can argue about who is responsible, but the FCC set the stage for it.
The FCC's Enforcement Branch is tasked with upholding U.S. law regarding indecent broadcasts. They determine if material is obscene based upon a three-pronged test.
While some will to the FCC's Web site list of fined broadcasters as proof they're keeping the fort, several examples point elsewhere. Some of the more recent occurrences involve the 'F' word.
At the 2003 Golden Globes U2 rocker Bono dropped the big one after winning an award. The utterance was not bleeped. When the complaints reigned in, the FCC's response was that what Bono said was not offensive despite the fact the 'F' word is a specifically banned word. The FCC's reason was that Bono used the word in adjective form, not a sexual vulgarity.
Thus, if you now use a profane, banned word and tack on an "-ing" to the end, it's okay.
Bono got away with it, as did Nicole Ritchie at the Billboard music awards. She threw in the "S" word for effect (also specifically banned). It got the same reaction: no fines.
No wonder television is pushing decency's boundaries. The Parents Television Council reported that profane utterances rose 98 percent in the 8 o'clock hour and109 percent in the 9 o'clock hour between 1998 and 2002. "ER" was planning on showing a bare breast this past week but was forced to cut it due to the uproar. ABC shows "NYPD Blue" and "Line of Fire" frequently show skin and highly offensive language while hiding behind an innocuous warning.
The FCC has been lax in making public television airwaves safe. They have, to this point, only fined one television station in their history. The lack of enforcement has given the envelope-pushers wind for their sails. The lack of oversight has created the current environment.
Some will say more rigid enforcement would be censorship. It's not; the Supreme Court has declared that obscenity isn't protected speech. Anybody crying censorship is crying wolf and has replaced concern for society's well-being with their own selfish interests.
The Super Bowl fallout seems to have galvanized the FCC to more rigidly enforce obscenity regulations. The Department of Justice recently hired a new obscenity prosecutor, signaling that they are getting serious on the issue as well.
Perhaps the FCC is taking seriously a Supreme Court ruling that said "there are few, if any, thoughts that cannot be expressed by the use of less offensive language." As Bono might say, that is so #$%&@$! true.
Write to Jeff at mannedarena@yahoo.com
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