TV Content Watchdog Group Holds '#NoIndecencyFCC Week'
A nonpartisan organization that advocates for well-enforced decency standards for entertainment media is holding a week for awareness of possible changes in television and radio decency standards.
The Parents Television Council has announced that this week is "#NoIndecencyFCC Week," which is part of their effort to convince the Federal Communications Commission to keep their current decency standards.
Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, told The Christian Post that "#NoIndecencyFCC Week" is based on the belief that the FCC's proposal on changing its decency standards is "extremely troublesome."
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"Only pursuing so-called important or 'egregious' complaints from the public about offensive or indecent TV or radio content will only lead to broadcasters pushing the decency limits even further," said Winter.
"Either material is legally indecent or it is not. It is unnecessary for indecent content to be repeated many times in order to be actionable, and it is unwise for the FCC to pursue a new course that will guarantee nothing but a rash of new litigation."
Last month, the FCC announced that it would seriously consider changing its decency standards regarding television and radio programming.
According to its website, the FCC states that the reconsideration comes in response to the Supreme Court's decision in FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., 132 S.Ct. 2307 (2012). In the 8-0 decision, the court ruled that the FCC had failed to give ABC and Fox "fair notice" in warning them that certain "fleeting" expletives or nudity were in violation of the FCC's decency standards.
"Since September 2012, the Bureau has reduced the backlog by 70% thus far, more than one million complaints, principally by closing pending complaints that were beyond the statute of limitations or too stale to pursue, that involved cases outside FCC jurisdiction, that contained insufficient information, or that were foreclosed by settled precedent," reads GN Docket No. 13-86 on the FCC's website.
"The Bureau is also actively investigating egregious indecency cases and will continue to do so. We now seek comment on whether the full Commission should make changes to its current broadcast indecency policies or maintain them as they are."
Before deciding whether or not to implement the changes, the FCC opted to put the matter to public comment, the deadline being Monday, May 20. Within a week, 56,000 comments were submitted demanding that the FCC maintain its decency standards. According to the PTC, as of last week the number has risen to 90,000.
Winter of PTC told CP that his organization's "goal is to encourage the public to file public comments with the FCC before May 20 to tell the FCC to eliminate this proposal that limits broadcast indecency complaints."
