CV Motion to Intervene Granted by Court on May 23, 2006.
The following statement was issued by Jonathan Rintels, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media:
“Today the Center for Creative Voices in Media filed a Motion to Intervene in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York on behalf of creative media artists in a lawsuit filed by Fox and CBS against the FCC, challenging the Commission’s indecency decisions released March 15, 2006. These Commission decisions put creative, challenging, controversial, non-homogenized broadcast television programming at risk, harming not only media artists, but the American public,” says Jonathan Rintels, Executive Director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media.
“These FCC decisions are consistently inconsistent, and illustrate the significant problems with the Commission’s enforcement of its own indecency rules. 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.
“These FCC decisions have already resulted in self-censorship of speech that is not indecent and is protected by the First Amendment. One example: the WB Network deleted material from its premiere episode of “The Bedford Diaries” that was not indecent even under the most recent set of FCC decisions, over the objections of that show’s distinguished creative producers, Oscar-winner Barry Levinson and Emmy-winner Tom Fontana. This very real “chilling effect” -- the direct result of these FCC decisions – harms not just media artists. It also violates the public’s First Amendment right to access speech that is not indecent on the public airwaves.
While some argue that the FCC’s actions protect America’s children, nothing could be further from the truth. As Creative Voices Advisory Board Member Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children’s Television, and winner of the Peabody Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom has written, “Government censorship is not the way to protect children from inappropriate television. The right to express what some consider offensive speech is the price Americans pay for freedom of political speech and we cannot afford to risk losing that freedom. It is not in the best interests of America’s children to “protect” them from expression that is itself protected by the First Amendment -- unobjectionable and appropriate creative works that are challenging, controversial, original, and important.”
Unfortunately, these protected and salutary works – the very works many parents want their children to watch -- now risk being left on the cutting room floor as a result of the Commission’s expansion of indecency enforcement.
Today, with the V-chip, the ratings system, programming information widely available in print and on the Internet, as well as cable and satellite set-top boxes that provide detailed programming guides and can also block programs and channels, there are many ways for parents to avoid television programming they might find offensive. And there are always the low-tech alternatives of changing the channel or turning the television off. While the FCC cites the numbers of American children with televisions in their bedrooms as justifying its heavy-handed indecency approach, it simply is not necessary for Americans to sacrifice their First Amendment rights so that a child can watch a TV in his bedroom unsupervised by his parents. Rather, parents have the tools at their disposal to avoid programming they don’t want their children to see – even if the kids are watching in their own bedroom.
The consistent inconsistency of the FCC decisions, and the “chilling effect” they place on free speech, should concern and give pause to legislators now considering increasing these chilling FCC fines tenfold or more, and extending those fines to creative artists. Such legislation will chill even more speech that is supposed to be protected by the First Amendment.
Creative media artists understand the concern of the FCC and legislators about television programming. But the Commission’s ‘medicine’ for indecent programming is proving worse than the disease, so it’s hardly time for legislators to increase the dosage. These decisions and fines turn the FCC, and the small group of determined activists who bombard it with email-generated indecency complaints from individuals who never actually view the programs they complain about, into the arbiters of what all Americans can watch in the privacy of their own homes. Rather than acting in the public interest, in the case of indecency the FCC is harming the public’s interest – including the interest of America’s children -- in a vibrant, diverse, creative, and challenging media. Rather than have the government decide for them, polls show the vast majority of Americans prefer to decide for themselves what to watch on TV. The First Amendment gives them that right.
The Center for Creative Voices in Media is a nonpartisan nonprofit group dedicated to preserving free speech, free expression, and independent and diverse creative voices in our nation’s media. Members of the Board of Advisors of Creative Voices include Warren Beatty, Steven Bochco, Peggy Charren, Blake Edwards, Tom Fontana, Sissy Spacek, and other Oscar, Emmy, Peabody, Tony, and other award-winning creative artists.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman and Parul Desai of the Media Access Project are counsel to the Center for Creative Voices in Media in this proceeding. MAP is a thirty six year old non-profit tax exempt public interest telecommunications law firm which promotes the public's First Amendment right to hear and be heard on the electronic media of today and tomorrow.
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If you have any questions or comments, or desire further information, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Rintels
Executive Director
Center for Creative Voices in Media
www.creativevoices.us
Center for Creative Voices in Media
1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 100-494
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 448-1517 (v)
(202) 318-9183 (f)
Creative Voices Intervenes In Network Suit Against FCC Indecency Decisions
