Word: fcc
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ways. In November, 65 ABC affiliates refused to air the uncut war movie Saving Private Ryan because of its profanity--although it had run without incident twice before. "It's a shame people couldn't see this patriotic film," said former Democratic presidential candidate General Wesley Clark, criticizing the FCC for waiting until February to rule that the film was not indecent. "They deserve an opportunity to see as much of the unvarnished truth as possible." (Even the PTC, incidentally, didn't object to Ryan's airing.) In February PBS advised member stations to air a bowdlerized version...
...though the PTC has a loud voice, just whom they speak for is debatable. Last year, in response to viewer complaints, the FCC levied its largest TV fine ever, $1.2 million, against Fox for an episode of the reality show Married by America, which featured strippers covered in whipped cream. The commission said the broadcast had generated 159 letters of complaint. Jeff Jarvis, a former TV critic who writes the blog BuzzMachine.com filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the letters. Because of multiple mailings, the letters actually came from just 23 people, 21 of whom used...
...Jarvis, "is that the media swallows [the data] whole, and it takes on a life of its own. There was no flood of letters. It was a trickle." The PTC strongly denies trying to create an illusory mass of outraged citizens. Of the 1.1 million complaints filed with the FCC last year, Winter says, only about 230,000 came from...
...from $32,500 for stations and $11,000 for individual performers). A Senate bill introduced last week by John D. Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, also ups the ante to $500,000, plus would bring cable and satellite under FCC purview, though vaguely. Yet most frightening to media executives are the warnings of Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska and the powerful chairman of the Commerce Committee, that he may push his own legislation to curb cable. "Eighty-five percent of the people watching televisions today are watching through cable, but they think...
...laws pass, the FCC's Martin is likely to be aggressive with them. In the past, he criticized some decisions during Powell's tenure as too lenient--such as not fining Fox for the horse-prostitute liaison on Keen Eddie--and called for fines not only to be stiffer but also to be assessed "per utterance," not per incident (one unbleeped Dave Chappelle routine, and you're in the poorhouse). He also wants to restore the "family hour" to prime time. Decency advocates are big fans. "He can send the signal that the agency has to get serious," says Bozell...