(TV) tax dollars at work (police on my back)

[robin dunn <rdunnrn@yahoo.com>]

they could only come up with *three* phrases?  

r


Bono's Use of Expletive Gets Second Look
Wed Jan 14, 2:47 PM ET
By JONATHAN D. SALANT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Federal Communications Commission (news -
web sites) Chairman Michael Powell (news) has asked
his fellow commissioners to overturn a much-criticized
decision that an expletive uttered by the musician
Bono on a network program was not obscene.

During last year's NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes
Awards, the lead singer of the Irish rock group U2
said "this is really, really, f------ brilliant."

The FCC (news - web sites)'s enforcement bureau ruled
in October that the comment was not indecent or
obscene because Bono used the word as an adjective,
not to describe a sexual act. "The performer used the
word ... as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an
exclamation," the bureau said.

Powell circulated a proposed ruling to the four other
commissioners on Tuesday. He needs the votes of two of
the four to overturn the decision.

The enforcement bureau had rejected complaints from
the Parents Television Council and more than 200
people, most of them associated with the conservative
advocacy group, who accused dozens of television
stations of violating restrictions on obscene
broadcasts by airing portions of the awards program
last January.

Under FCC rules, broadcasters cannot air obscene
material at any time and cannot air indecent material
between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

In a letter to the Parents Television Council last
November, Powell said the FCC needed to balance its
rules against indecency and obscenity with the First
Amendment right to free speech. Even so, he said, "I
find the use of the 'F-word' on programming accessible
to children reprehensible."

Some lawmakers have criticized the FCC decision.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., introduced a resolution that
called it the "latest salvo in a string of decisions
by the Federal Communications Commission that
establishes a precedent regarding the use of
universally recognized vulgar expletives on our
nation's public airwaves."

And Reps. Doug Ose, R-Calif., and Lamar Smith,
R-Texas, proposed legislation that would ban five
words and three phrases from the airwaves. 

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