Word: fcc
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...FCC warning to radio stations about the use of offensive language and material on the air is an insult to the public (NATION, April 27). Americans should be allowed to decide on their own what is indecent. When they are , offended by what they hear, listeners can change the station or turn off the radio...
...action that considerably broadens its definition of indecency on the airwaves, the FCC issued warnings to three radio licensees, among them WYSP- FM, the Philadelphia station that airs Stern's show, for broadcasting material that contained sexually explicit language. One of those stations, cited for broadcasting excerpts from a play describing homosexual practices, was referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution for obscenity. In a move that will undoubtedly affect -- and restrict -- the sexual content of what broadcasters say, the FCC suggested it will henceforth take enforcement action against shows it deems to be "indecent...
...seven-dirty-words policy, a standard first enunciated in 1976 in response to the broadcast of a monologue by Comedian George Carlin titled Filthy Words, in which he mocked the banning of certain sexually explicit terms. In its ruling that year against New York City station WBAI-FM, the FCC defined indecency as anything "patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards," but the commission elected to move against only those stations that permitted one of the proscribed words to be uttered on the air at a time of day when children might be listening. Last week, however, the commission...
...Washington, D.C., noted that Stern's monologues may be rude, but they are not lewd and are "well within the bounds of protected bad taste" as guaranteed by the First Amendment. David Salniker, executive director of the Pacifica Foundation, which operates one of the stations reprimanded by the FCC, argued that the agency is far too vague about where it is drawing the line. "Does this mean that Alice Walker can't read from The Color Purple anymore, as she has on our station, because the book deals with incest?" he asked...
Lawyer Steven Lerman, who represents WYSP, put it most succinctly: "What was protected speech yesterday is not protected speech today." Yesterday's innuendo, he suggests, is today's indecency. Yet Lerman predicted that because the FCC has the singular power to bestow and withdraw licenses, broadcasters will be reluctant to jeopardize their franchises by testing the agency's ruling in court...