The Federal Communications Commission had one of its semi-regular paroxysms of moral cleansing yesterday, upholding the fines against CBS for the Janet Jackson incident in 2004 and levying about $4 million in new fines for various shows, including a record $3.6 million against 11 CBS affiliates for airing an episode of crime show Without a Trace that contained a scene depicting a teen orgy. Never mind that the scene contained no actual nudity; that linking teen sex with violent crime is not exactly the best way to glorify said sex; and that the show was a repeat of an episode that had aired without repercussions earlier. When it comes to pandering to a few vocal members of conservative advocacy groups, it’s better late than never.
I won’t repeat all my usual arguments against the morality cops here, except for one important point. The idea of judging indecency turns on determining the "community standard" for dirtiness. Without a Trace is one of the most popular programs on television, a regular top 10 show that has been on the air for four seasons. Its sometimes-lurid content is well known to its tens of millions of fans. Now, it’s questionable whether, in an age of fragmented media, a "community standard" can even be determined. But assuming it can, what meets the community standard if not a show that a plurality of the community has chosen to reward with some of the highest ratings on TV? When you say that a show like that is beyond the pale, you are not enforcing a community standard; you are imposing a standard that you wish the community had.
Rant over. The real fun comes when you run down the list of the other shows, spanning from 2002 to 2005, that the FCC chose to punish or not:
· The FCC fined three different Spanish-language broadcasts, including a talk show in which a woman exposed and shook her breasts at the camera and a video show that included numerous acts of near-nudity and simulated sex, all of which conviced me that I should be watching more Spanish-language TV.
· For years, reality and other TV shows have used pixellation of nudity to, literally, cover their butts (among other body parts). Apparently that’s no longer good enough, as The WB caught a fine for an episode of The Surreal Life 2 which pixellated the bodies of nude women at a party for porn star Ron Jeremy. This, presumably, was intended to protect the families that had expected wholesome child-friendly programming from a reality show featuring the world’s most famous male porn star.
· A PBS affiliate was fined for instances of the F-word in the nationally broadcast, critically acclaimed documentary The Blues, from producer Martin Scorsese. The decision came, the FCC noted, even though it had determined that the same language would have been allowable for artistic reasons in a broadcast of Saving Private Ryan. This means that (1) the FCC has now made itself responsible for determining not just the indecency but the artistic merits of films and (2) that apparently it is believable for fictional soldiers to swear but not real-life bluesmen.
· The FCC found several shows, including NYPD Blue, the Billboard Music Awards and The CBS Early Show, indecent for use of the s-word. (By the way, the FCC report uses all the swear words in full. Right there on the Internet where innocent children can access them.) However, the commission did not fine them because, it notes, its precedent was not to fine broadcasters for the word. Now, presumably, broadcasters are on notice that they will be up s-word creek if they use the term in the future. In other words, the FCC has decided that the community standard on profanity has become more conservative in the last few years, reinforcing my belief that the FCC is housed in a remote cave unaccessible to anyone from the outside world except members of the Parents Television Council.
· There were also numerous shows the FCC looked into and found not guilty of indecency. There are too many to go over, but if you have a chance to download the report, it’s interesting to see the burning investigations your tax dollars can be poured into because one person got offended (or was told by some advocacy group’s website that they should be offended) and wrote a letter. Here’s just one treat: an episode of The Simpsons in which Mr. Burns and his toady Waylon Smithers accidentally visit a "nude female fire station." From the report: "Although the complaint states that the scene depicts physical contact between Smithers and a female cartoon dancer’s buttocks, we were unable to confirm this statement based on our viewing of the tape." Oh, but God bless you for checking! (Incidentally, from what we know about Smithers, it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have enjoyed it much anyway.)
· Finally, you’ll be glad to know that Oprah Winfrey was cleared for a show in which a guest described in detail several graphic sexual practices, which I will not repeat here less for decency concerns than because I’d be giggling too hard to type. But suffice it to say that the practices are more or less the same ones that Howard Stern was fined for describing on his old broadcast radio show. Of course, when they did that, they only had to deal with Stern badmouthing them on the air. An angry Oprah on a First Amendment crusade could crush the government like she did James Frey.
Lesson: The American people must be protected from indecency on extremely popular programs that they have overwhelmingly chosen to support–even at the cost of millions to broadcasters and taxpayers. But at the cost of ticking off Oprah? Let’s not get crazy here.