As the Federal Communications Commission considers broadcasters’ appeals of several recent indecency decisions, the Center for Creative Voices in Media today released a new report that argues those decisions stifle free expression, threaten quality television, and harm America’s children.

Martin Scorsese’s The Blues: Godfathers and Sons and Steven Bochco’s NYPD Blue – these are great television programs that the FCC has already judged indecent. Ken Burns’s upcoming PBS documentary on World War II The War, CBS’s 9/11 documentary, the classic Civil Rights Movement documentary Eyes on the Prize, Masterpiece Theater, Roots, and more – these are shows that experts believe may now be ‘indecent’ under recent FCC decisions, according to the report, Big Chill: How the FCC’s Indecency Decisions Stifle Free Expression, Threaten Quality Television, and Harm America’s Children..

“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,” said Jonathan Rintels, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media and author of the report.

“When the FCC’s inconsistent and confusing indecency decisions force broadcasters to censor, delay, or drop shows like Eyes on the Prize, The War, 9/11 and others, its clear that the high quality television ‘baby’ is being thrown out with the indecent ‘bathwater,’” added Rintels.

“Many parents want to watch this programming together with their children. By causing quality television to disappear, the FCC has taken a powerful tool out of the hands of parents who use television to open up a dialogue with their kids about controversial topics like violence, poverty, racial disparity, and cultural diversity,” says Peggy Charren, famed children’s television advocate, founder of Action for Children’s Television and winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “Consider how many parents watched Roots with their children and then engaged in a dialogue with them about the issues raised by that provocative program. For the FCC to deny them that opportunity – that’s not helping kids, it’s harming kids.”

Our full report, Big Chill: How the FCC’s Indecency Decisions Stifle Free Expression, Threaten Quality Television, and Harm America’s Children, is posted at this link and below.