Speaking of Free Speech

[Note, this was supposed to have been posted on 12/13 but got lost in "draft" status after writing it. Reading this Hit & Run entry reminded me to get back to it.]

It comes as no surprise to me that even after the Supreme Court campaign finance case caused an uproar, politicians in Washington still can't fathom the meaning of "Congress shall make no law..."

Nasty Language on Live TV Renews Old Debate

Members of both parties in Congress are demanding that the FCC crack down harder on broadcasters, while some FCC members want to toughen the penalties the agency imposes. At the same time, lawmakers are grappling with the fact that the government's limited enforcement powers over the public airwaves do not apply to cable channels, which are grabbing more and more viewers.

Parent groups and socially conservative organizations that monitor broadcasts agree that television and radio content is getting racier and raunchier. Members of the Parents Television Council, a group that monitors television broadcasts and whose celebrity advisers include Pat Boone and Jane Seymour, have filed more than 85,000 complaints about broadcast indecency and obscenity at the FCC this year.

And what is the catalyst for the current round of hand-wringing and finger-waggling?

Nicole Richie of the Fox reality show "The Simple Life," prepared to announce a category of nominees on the Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday night. Standing alongside was her co-star, hotel heiress Paris Hilton, who warned: "Now Nicole, remember, this a live show, watch the bad language."

Richie paid no attention, using a vulgar substitute for the exclamation "shoot." The broadcast, which employed a five-second delay to catch obscenities, bleeped out the offending word. But Richie was one step ahead. Before Fox could hit the "dump" button again, she described her time on "The Simple Life," in which she and Hilton live with an Arkansas farm family. She repeated the word and then added one for good measure.

"Have you ever tried to get cow [expletive] out of a Prada purse?" Richie said. "It's not so [expletive] simple."

Vulgar, crude, and immoral. This doesn't belong on television!

I'm offended! My children might have heard that!

This country sinks further into a moral wasteland.

But what's more wrong:

1. Hearing a "bad word";
   
2. Children hearing a "bad word"; or
   
3. Using the force of government to prohibit such speech and punish the people involved?

Yah, I know. Rhetorical question. Silly of me to ask.

The FCC, charged with enforcing indecency and obscenity standards on the public airwaves, issued a ruling in October regarding the utterance of the "F-word" during a Fox broadcast in January.

During the live Golden Globe Awards broadcast in January, Bono -- frontman for the Irish rock group U2 -- received an award and exulted, "This is really, really [expletive] brilliant!"

The FCC's enforcement bureau ruled that Bono's utterance was neither indecent nor obscene because it did not describe a sexual function.

Sens. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) and 11 Republicans, including Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), introduced a resolution last week blasting the FCC's ruling on Bono.

The resolution does not demand further FCC regulations against indecency but would direct the agency to consider revoking the broadcast licenses of television stations that repeatedly air indecent material. It also says the FCC should fine programs for each indecency during a show, not levy one fine for the entire show. In other words, if the FCC were to fine Fox for Richie's language, it should impose two fines, one for each curse word, a plan the FCC is likely to adopt.

Rep. Doug Ose (R-Calif.) wants more. He has proposed legislation to effectively overturn the FCC ruling, blasting the agency for relying on a "technicality."

"You want to split hairs? I'm going to shave your head," Ose said, referring to his legislative remedy.

Representative Ose flexes his tyrannical muscles quite openly. He's a Warrior of Decency! Why, he's leaving his seat next year...he has to leave some residue of his presence on the nation! His (and Rep. Lamar S. Smith's, a sponsor) legislation is H.R.3687 which says

As used in this section, the term 'profane', used with respect to language, includes the words 'shit', 'piss', 'fuck', 'cunt', 'asshole', and the phrases 'cock sucker', 'mother fucker', and 'ass hole', compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms).'.

Here's something for Mr. Ose to consider:

It would be offensive to have those words enshrined in federal law as a way to censor our speech.

I'd strike the entire contents of United States Code, Title 18, Chapter 71 from the record. In particular, Section 1464:

Whoever utters any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communication shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

The 1st Amendment doesn't cover this? What empty-headed asshats have been interpreting this document over the years?!

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I don't give a damn what the Supreme Court may have said in various rulings about the Founding Fathers' "intent." If they had intended to qualify the extent the government would leave speech alone, they would have gawddamned MENTIONED that. But they didn't. They wrote a clear and unambiguous statement in support of free speech absolutism.

In a letter to the Parents Television Council after the enforcement bureau's ruling, FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell wrote: "Personally, I find the use of the 'F-word' on programming accessible to children reprehensible." The five FCC commissioners are reviewing the ruling by David H. Solomon, chief of the enforcement bureau.

Do it FOR the children.

Do it TO everyone else.

You're an ass, Powell. You, your organization, and the government do not have the right to tell us what we can't say.

The FCC "is doing an indecent job of enforcing indecency," Commissioner Michael J. Copps said in an interview. "If we send one or two of the most egregious cases to license renewal hearings, we'll see it improved quite a bit," meaning that if broadcasters are threatened with losing their licenses, the airwaves would be cleaned up quickly.

[...]

Radio is also under increasing scrutiny. This week, the FCC fined Detroit radio station WKRK-FM $27,500 for airing a listener discussion of sexual practices and techniques.

Copps, who dissented from the majority on the WKRK action, said the fine was insufficient and that the FCC should have started a hearing to revoke the station's license. Commissioner Kevin J. Martin said the station should have been fined $27,500 for each of the nine determined instances of indecency on the WKRK broadcast.

© 2003 The Washington Post Company

Copps and Martin are just as bad as Ose. Instead of writing new law, they'd threaten to take away broadcast licenses, thus underlining another reason why regulation of the airwaves is wrong: the arbitrary whims of whomever is in power used to further a political agenda. I talked about this earlier in the year when Sarah Jones and KBOO got off the hook for an indecency fine for broadcasting her song, "Your Revolution."

So fuck the Supreme Court and fuck the politicians who have eroded and continue to erode our fundamental right to free speech.

Posted by Drizzten at December 13, 2003 01:20 PM