FCC Indecency Policy Unconstitutional, 2nd Circuit Rules
| July 14, 2010 CV applauds the ruling of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Fox v FCC that the FCC policy on broadcast indecency is unconstitutional and harms not only creative media artists, but the American public. In its well-reasoned decision, the Court cited several examples found in CV's Big Chill white paper of the "chilling effect" of the FCC's actions. More»
Creative Voices Comments on Supreme Court Upholding FCC Indecency Decisions In Fox v. FCC
| May 18, 2009 Creative Voices had a few choice words to say -- none of them expletives -- after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC's flawed indecency decisions in Fox v. FCC -- the Cher, Nicole Ritchie, and Bono "fleeting expletives" case. As an intervening party in the case, Creative Voices argued that the FCC's arbitrary enforcement of its indecency rules has created a "chilling effect" that harms creative artists and the general public.
We look forward to returning to the Second Circuit, at the Supreme Court's invitation, to now try the question of whether the FCC's decision to censor Fox Television for these fleeting expletives violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. More»
CV Applauds Overturning of FCC's Janet Jackson Fine
| July 21, 2008 Creative Voices applauds today’s ruling by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals that the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency decision and $550,000 fine against CBS in the Janet Jackson Super Bowl halftime case were “arbitrary and capricious,” and therefore unlawful. As both the Third Circuit in this case and the Second Circuit in last year’s Fox v. FCC case (Cher and Nicole Ritchie “fleeting expletives”) found, overly broad FCC decisions on what constitutes “indecency” that arbitrarily overturn decades of Commission precedent put creative, challenging, controversial, non-homogenized broadcast television programming at risk. In many cases, the programs censored are the very programs that parents want their children to watch. More»
CV Files Brief Seeking Reversal of FCC NYPD Blue Fine
| July 1, 2008 Creative Voices asked the Second Circuit to do what it did last year in Fox v. FCC: reverse yet another arbitrary and capricious FCC indecency decision that puts creative, challenging, controversial, non-homogenized broadcast television programming at risk.
As the Court found in reversing the FCC’s decision in Fox, the Commission’s enforcement of its indecency rules has been vague, arbitrary, insufficiently attuned to the context and quality of the program, and bears no relation to “contemporary community standards,” as the Commission’s own rules require. The FCC’s decision in NYPD Blue suffers from the same flaws and the court should reverse it as well. More»
Creative Voices Debates Censorship on C-SPAN
| April 26, 2007 Jonathan Rintels, Center for Creative Voices in Media, and Tim Winters, Parents' Television Council, discuss the upcoming FCC Report on Media Violence C-SPAN in separate 15 minute interviews on March 31, 2007. More»
FCC Violence Report to Congress -- CV's Response
| April 26, 2007 We believe that giving the Federal Communications Commission the power to regulate ‘violent’ and ‘graphic’ television content will stifle free expression, threaten quality programming, and ultimately harm America’s children, just as its regulation of ‘indecency’ has done.
The clear answer to effectively addressing the issue of how parents can avoid programming they find objectionable is not for the government to censor programming. Rather, it is to better educate parents about the blocking technologies available to them, so that they can make the choices that are appropriate for their families. In its Report to Congress, however, the Commission does not even recommend better parental education. It only recommends censorship. More»
The question of whether there is too much "violence" on broadcast television will soon be teed up at the FCC and in Congress. While we agree that there is a great deal of programming on television that is not appropriate for children, government attempts to define and regulate excessively "violent" television create all the same problems -- and more -- as the Commission's inconsistent and overly-broad censoring of so-called "indecent" programming. The unintended consequence has been the censoring of quality programming that is perfectly appropriate, and that many parents positively want their children to see, as we documented in our report Big Chill: How the FCC's Indecency Decisions Stifle Free Expression, Threaten Quality Television, and Harm America's Children.Watch our debate over these issues on CNBC cable network, February 21, 2007. More»
Appeals Court Asks What the FCC Happened to Free Speech?
| December 21, 2006 Three of the nation's most distinguished jurists heard arguments in Fox vs. the Federal Communications Commission yesterday in the US Second Circuit over whether the FCC's recent decisions on what constitutes indecency, and under what circumstances, are "arbitrary and capricious" under the law and therefore must be overturned. What the judges' questioning clearly established is that the FCC "process" in judging what is "indecent" is arbitrary, subjective, and inconsistent, and that the Commission has likely overstepped its legal authority.
Read our full coverage of the Appeals Court hearing and our brief to the Court as an Intervening Party. More»
“The results of the FCC’s campaign against broadcast indecency are clear. Much of the programming that is being censored, pushed back to a late hour, or dropped entirely by broadcasters is the very programming that Americans overwhelmingly want to see – some of the highest-quality programming available on television.” More»
The Censorship Chronicles - Podcasts
| November 23, 2006 Creative Voices presents The Censorship Chronicles, a series of informative, humorous, and wide-ranging interviews with prominent creative artists about the "chilling effect" of the FCC's indecency decisions, hosted by Jonathan Rintels, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media. The 30 minute interviews are available as podcasts for free download, or as streaming audio, from CV's Podcasting Page or Apple's iTunes store. More»
CV Files Appeals Court Brief Challenging FCC Indecency Decisions
| November 22, 2006 Creative Voices today filed a 61 page brief with the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals seeking to overturn the FCC's recent consistently inconsistent indecency decisions. Read it and all about it. More»
Mission Not Accomplished Against Indecency
| June 15, 2006 The President signed legislation increasing tenfold the “indecency” fines the FCC can impose on broadcasters. Unfortunately, it's definitely Mission Not Accomplished in terms of giving parents real solutions to the problem of objectionable content on the airwaves. In fact, this is Mission Accomplished only for the few Americans who polls show want the government to control what everyone else gets to watch on television. Everyone else loses.
We'll likely never again see on broadcast TV a repeat of a nearly three decade old show that featured several minutes of bare breasts, rape, bondage, whips, violence, the N Word. Yet Roots was beloved by America's families and was even required watching in some schools. Is keeping Roots -- or a similar quality, challenging, controversial program -- off broadcast TV a "victory" for America's children and families, as some lawmakers describe this increased censorship? Hardly. Yet that will be the result. More»
Creative Voices Intervenes In Network Suit Against FCC Indecency Decisions
| May 25, 2006 Citing FCC decisions that are "consistently inconsistent," vague, arbitrary, insufficiently attuned to the context and quality of the program, and bear no relation to “contemporary community standards,” as the Commission’s own rules require, as well as the Commission's substitution of its own creative and artistic choices for those made by media artists, Creative Voices filed a Motion to Intervene on behalf of creative media artists in a lawsuit filed by Fox and CBS against the FCC. CV Motion to Intervene Granted by Court on May 23. More»
Survey: Americans Don't Want Government to Censor TV
| March 31, 2006 In a survey conducted just days after the FCC fined local broadcasters for airing content it deemed indecent, voters overwhelmingly rejected the notion that government should have a say in what they watch on TV. The nationwide survey, conducted March 24-26 by Russell Research, found that only twelve percent of American voters prefer that the government – and not individuals – decide what’s appropriate for television. In fact, those who prefer government control are such a small minority that they’re even outnumbered by the one-fifth of Americans who believe that alien abductions have taken place [Roper Poll, 2002]. More»
Creative Voices Responds to FCC "Indecency" Decisions
| March 15, 2006 “Today’s FCC indecency decisions put creative, challenging, controversial, non-homogenized broadcast television programming at risk,” says Jonathan Rintels, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media. They are vague, arbitrary, insufficiently attuned to the context and quality of the program, and bear no relation to “contemporary community standards,” as the Commission’s own rules require. They substitute the Commissioners’ creative and artistic choices for those made by media artists. And they will undoubtedly result in increasing amounts of self-censorship of protected speech by media artists and broadcasters.
Creative media artists understand the Commission’s desire to address complaints, some well-founded, about television programming. But the Commission’s ‘cure’ for indecent programming is proving worse than the disease. It does not serve the public’s interest – including the interest of America’s children -- in a vibrant, diverse, creative, and challenging media. It turns the Commission, and the small group of determined activists who bombard it with canned indecency complaints, into the arbiters of what all Americans can watch in the privacy of their own homes. The vast majority of Americans prefer to decide for themselves what to watch on TV. The First Amendment gives them that right. More»
Media Consolidation and Indecency -- the Link
| January 23, 2006 Creative Voices's study, "Ownership Concentration and Indecency in Broadcasting: Is There a Link?" finds that from 2000 to 2003, four of the nation's largest radio companies were responsible for 96% of FCC indecency fines, while their stations accounted for only about half of the country's listening audience. The study points out that some of the politicians who are now trying to crack down on indecency by raising fines on broadcasters are the same ones who voted in 1996 to relax ownership rules that contributed to concentration. The report concludes that, "One of the unintended consequences of their support of deregulation is an increase in indecency." Rather than increase fines for indecency, the report suggests that a more effective and First Amendment-friendly approach to the indecency problem would be to reintroduce meaningful station ownership caps, limit vertical integration of program ownership, and promoting localism and diversity of voices in our nation’s media. FOR A COPY OF THE REPORT, CLICK More»
Indecency Debate: Is It Over Yet?
| January 20, 2006 Higher indecency fines, a la carte cable, and/or extending indecency legislation to cable and satellite may have all been stopped cold in the Senate. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), Chairman of the Commerce Committee, seems satisfied to let cable and satellite's "Family Tiers" have a test run in the marketplace. And he appears placated by Jack Valenti's promise of a broadcaster and cable-led $250-$300 million 18-month campaign to educate consumers about the V chip, channel blockers, ratings systems, and other means they already have to cope with content they find offensive.
Our conclusion: unless there is another Janet Jackson-type incident at this year's Super Bowl, or something equally outrageous, while the rhetoric will continue, Congress will not pass new indecency legislation this year and the FCC will not take up a la carte cable. More»
NBC Affiliates Burn 'Book'
| January 5, 2006 Bowing to pressure from the nut jobs at the American Family Association, some smaller NBC affiliates are preempting the new show, The Book of Daniel, because the AFA considers it "anti-Christian bigotry." Which is ridiculous, but the affiliates have that power and right, which we've always defended. What's not defensible is trying to tie this show and its preemption to the FCC's regulation of indecency, as many have done.
This demonstrates the truth about so much of the debate about indecency on TV -- it's not really about indecent programming. Rather, it's about one small, determined group of citizens trying to control the content of television for not just themselves and their children -- but for the entire nation. Let's not confuse that agenda with the legitimate discussion about what to do about indecent programming. More»
Bringing "Biblical Principles" to the FCC
| August 8, 2005 FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has appointed Penny Nance, until recently a board member of "Concerned Women for America," as an advisor on indecency issues. Concerned Women for America describes its mission as “helping…to bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy.” Ms. Nance has also worked for the "Center for Reclaiming America," a group that says it works to “implement the Biblical principles on which our country was founded.” What does this say about the direction Martin intends to take the Commission on so-called "indecency" issues? This is extremely troubling news for anyone concerned about freedom of speech, and the separation of church and state. More»
Your Taxpayer Dollars at Work -- Neutering Public Broadcasting
| June 16, 2005 Corporation for Public Broadcasting Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson appears to be on a crusade to make public broadcasting "fair and balanced" -- Fox News-style -- and he's using our tax dollars to finance it, without disclosing those expenditures to the CPB Board, according to press reports.
Common Cause has created a webpage for citizens to send letters to House members opposing the gutting of public broadcasting. We urge you to send a letter, now, today! The link is here.
It's yet one more front that government has opened in its battle to make independent media not a watch dog, but a government lap dog. More»
Motley Crue Banned on NBC -- It's no Joke!
| June 3, 2005 Too bad the media is treating Motley Crue's lawsuit against NBC for banning it as a joke or publicity stunt for the band's tour. Because NBC's actions raise serious questions about Big Media's -- and Washington's -- commitment to First Amendment-protected free speech and expression. To recap, the NBC ban resulted from MC's lead singer Vince Neil saying to drummer Tommy Lee during a song "Happy Fucking New Year, Tommy" just after midnight on The Tonight Show's live New Year's Eve show. Let's be clear: Saying "fuck" after 10 p.m. on broadcast television does not violate FCC indecency rules or any law. More»
Organizing Opposition to National Nannies
| May 4, 2005 TV Watch, a coalition of widely diverse organizations, has launched to call attention to the fact that while the vast majority of Americans are concerned about what is on TV, a majority of Americans do not favor government censoring it. Creative Voices is a member. More»
Extend Broadcast Indecency Regs to Cable and Satellite? There's a Far Better Way
| March 1, 2005 Rather than agree with Sen. Ted Stevens that FCC broadcast indecency regs should extend to cable and satellite, CCVM and the Parents Television Council agreed in a CNBC debate that a far preferable solution would be to give consumers the right to pick and choose what cable channels they want, rather than eat the broadcasters' and cable companies' "packages," larded with channels that offend them. More»
Increased Indecency Fines Pass House
| February 16, 2005 As creative artists and members of the public, we deeply regret the passage today of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 by the House of Representatives. The exponential increase in “indecency” fines for broadcasters, and the application of those fines to performers on their first offense, will turn the chill that has already descended over our nation’s media into a deep freeze. Today’s vote was a tragedy for creative artists. More importantly, it was a tragedy for the American public. More»
Saving "Saving Private Ryan"
| February 14, 2005 We welcome the FCC's unanimous decision to deny complaints that the Veterans Day 2004 broadcast on ABC-affiliated stations of “Saving Private Ryan” was either indecent or profane and commend the Commission for recognizing, as President Bush recently noted in a C-SPAN interview with Brian Lamb, that parents, not government, are the "first line of responsibility when it comes to protecting children from indecent TV programming." Read our full Press Release More»
Media Censorship