Appeals Court Strikes Down Indecency Rule.

[elleng]

Source: nyt

A United States appeals court tossed out the indecency policy of the
Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, calling it a violation
of the First Amendment.

An appeals panel said the F.C.C. policy was “unconstitutionally vague,
creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting
expletives at issue here.”

The action is rooted in a 2004 decision by the F.C.C. under the Bush
administration to step up its enforcement of indecency on the
broadcast airwaves. According to Tuesday’s court filing, the F.C.C.
policy stated that “a single, nonliteral use of an expletive (a
so-called ‘fleeting expletive’) could be actionably indecent.”



Read more: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/appeals-court-strikes-down-indecency-rule/

[backscatter712]

1. About fucking time! n/t

[truebrit71]

2. Fuck yes!

:evilgrin:

[activa8tr]

3. So is George Carlin's famous routine going to be televised now? nt

[onenote]

8. No. The Second Circuit could not and did not overrule Pacifica

The Court acknowledged that the Pacifica decision, upholding the FCC's application of its rule barring indecent broadcast speech to the Carlin monologue, was settled law. The Court's decision focused on the FCC's subsequent articulation of it indecency policy which is unconstitutionally vague.

THe orders that the court's ruling covers include the imposition of fines arising out of Bono's exclamation that his Golden Globe award was "fucking brilliant", Cher's exclamation "fuck em" at the Billboard awards, and Nicole Ritchie's unscripted statement at the 2003 Billboard Awards "Have you ever tried to get cow shit out of Prada purse? It's no so fucking simple."

[No Elephants]

12. I'm guessing that getting a cow to take a dump into a Prada purse is even less fucking simple.

[Kablooie]

4. Yeah! About time this f*cking sh*tty policy is ch*nged!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. And with this decision, Howard Stern wishes to announce his return to terrestrial radio.

[frebrd]

6. Hallefuckinlujah! eom

:applause:

[X_Digger]

7. Awesome! n/t

[onehandle]

9. Fox Television immediately starts working on new show: 'Full Frontal Nudity American Idol' nt

[SpiralHawk]

10. "Fab. Now they can show Full Frontal Diapers." - David Vitter (R)

[Odin2005]

11. TheNanny-Statists are gonna have a nit-fit.

[msanthrope]

13. Fuck you, Michael Powell!!! n/t

[ProudDad]

14. Let me be the FIRST!!!

Shit
Piss
Fuck
Cunt
Cocksucker
Motherfucker
Tits

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_dirty_words

[Heywood J]

15. As long as the program is suitably coded for V-chip parental blocking,

I don't see why we even bother applying censorship to such TV programs. Isn't that why we endured the whole fiasco around the V-chip and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the first place? They've been required in all TVs since 1999, so pretty much every TV will have one. Parents and conservatives will have the choice to either accept the content as-is, or actually read the TV's manual and learn how to set it properly so there will be no excuse for being offended.

After that, the rest of us can watch what we like at any time we like. Broadcasters can still feel free to bleep one or two profanities to keep the rating down, but most programs that would be affected aren't likely to be considered aimed at children or carry child-oriented advertising anyway. Language, sexual content, and violent content that exceed the rating applied to the show is a different matter and still needs to be enforced, but (for example) I'd love to hear what Jon Stewart is actually saying.