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Friday, Jul 10, 2009
In its Thursday ruling against Bono and Howard Stern, the FCC announced that a new day of language policing has dawned.
Mar 19, 2004 | Taking on its new role as the indecency hanging judge, and doing it with a vengeance, the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday levied a fine against Howard Stern, America's most notorious radio talk show host, and ruled that U2 frontman Bono had been indecent and profane for using the word "fucking" in a Golden Globes telecast. The moves were just the latest in what the FCC suggests will be a string of penalties. Under pressure during an election year from politicians and grass-roots groups to clean up the airwaves, the bipartisan commission, which for years was all but dormant on the topic, has launched an unprecedented campaign to battle indecency on the airwaves.
"They're on a roll," says Arthur Belendiuk, a Washington communications attorney who has helped file indecency complaints against radio broadcasters in recent years. "Indecency is clearly the flavor of the month at the FCC. How long it will last nobody knows."
Some of the commission's recent indecency fines have been easy calls, penalizing radio shows that blatantly turned their backs on community standards and broadcast unedited sex talk shows, discussing "licking pussy," and other obvious graphic and sexual remarks. But Thursday's fines are sure to raise eyebrows. For instance, in the Bono ruling the commission, overruling its own internal indecency chief, as well as decades of commission guidelines, unveiled a radical new policy declaring that the mere utterance of the "F-word" on TV or radio is both indecent and obscene. The FCC announced that broadcasters who inadvertently transmit the remark, even if it comes during a live, unscripted event, including, theoretically at least, sporting events, will be subject to heavy fines.
"By our action today, broadcasters are on clear notice that, in the future, they will be subject to potential enforcement action for any broadcast of the 'F-Word' or a variation thereof in situations such as that here," wrote FCC chairman Michael Powell. Suddenly the indecency battle has emerged as the new ground zero in the culture wars.
As for Stern, the commission's decision to fine him for indecency will likely fuel speculation that the famous shock jock is being used by the FCC to make a larger point about indecency. Stern and his supporters can point to three facts in support of that case. First, the content of Stern's show has not changed substantially over the last decade, during which time the commission never fined him. Yet suddenly, amid the controversy sparked by this year's Super Bowl halftime show, he's deemed to be indecent. Second, the fine the FCC levied yesterday was for a broadcast that aired nearly three years ago. If it was indecent in 2001, 2002 and 2003, then why did the FCC wait until 2004 to rule? And third, the raunchy material from Stern's 2001 program that the FCC found to be out of bounds is almost mild compared to the other violations the FCC has been documenting.
Stern became the center of the firestorm last month when Clear Channel Communications, radio's largest owner, kicked him off six of its stations and publicly labeled the syndicated morning show "vulgar, offensive, and insulting." The ban was part of Clear Channel's announced zero tolerance policy toward indecency, and came just one day before the head of Clear Channel radio was to testify before Congress on the issue of indecency.
In the wake of Clear Channel's move, Stern has claimed that the broadcast giant, which has close ties to the Bush family and the Republican Party, kicked him off the air because he had been telling his 8 million weekly listeners to vote President Bush out of office. Clear Channel denies Stern's politics had anything to do with its decision to pull his show.
Since Clear Channel's move, Stern has been on an anti-Bush drive-time crusade, criticizing the president at every turn, and claiming the administration bowed to pressure from the political right and ordered the FCC to go after him. "George W. Bush is going to be out of office in November thanks to me," Stern told his listeners Friday morning, describing Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as "two drunks who found Jesus." He also contemplated holding a fundraiser for Bush's November opponent, Sen. John Kerry. "I'm sure I'm going to campaign for the guy," he said.
Stern, who was at the center of the last indecency debate during the early '90s, had been warning listeners that the FCC was about to penalize him, and Thursday it finally did. The commission fined Stern's employer, Infinity Broadcasting, $27,500 for a program that aired July 26, 2001. Stern was describing slang words for raunchy sex acts and body parts:
Stern: Well, a "blumpkin" is receiving oral sex while you're sitting on a toilet bowl if you are a man. You're sitting on a toilet bowl and, uh, while you're evacuating you receive your oral.
Stern: A "balloon knot" is when you bend over and I can see right up your old wazoo and, uh, you know that's a balloon knot that you see.
Stern sidekick: It was the "David Copperfield." OK, do you want to explain it, since I ... When you're goin' like a dog ... and you're about to finish and instead you don't finish, you spit on her and then you turn around and when she turns her face around then you go ... So it's kind of like an illusion ...
Stern: Right.
Sidekick: To David Copperfield.
Raunchy and crude? No question. But compare that to the most recent FCC indecency fines. Last week the FCC fined Clear Channel $247,500 for a bit that aired on WWDC in Washington (as well as several other syndicated stations) during the "Elliot in the Morning" show, which was celebrating porn star Ron Jeremy's 50th birthday:
Female voice: I masturbate with Jeremy's video every day. Uh, not every day, but every other weekend.
Jock's voice: Wow. What is it that you like about him so much?
Female voice: The way he licks pussy. I want to do a threesome with him. See who's the best. If I can lick better or he can lick better.
Incredibly, the station rebroadcast the exchange for a recorded station promotion.
The same day the Stern fine was announced, the FCC reaffirmed an early ruling against WLLD in Tampa, Fla., for airing a live rap concert. One song contained the following lyrics:
"God damn, where are my pussy eating niggers? Any my niggers into eating pussy? Y'all make some noise. Hey, where are my girls? If you're eating pussy, where you at? That's it. Oh, they all like it. I ain't eating no pussy tonight. If you all don't like it, fuck it. I ain't going to beg you. You like it?"
The station was fined $7,000.
And also yesterday, the FCC fined Clear Channel's WAVW in Ft. Pierce, Fla., $55,000 for broadcasting an interview, at 7 a.m., with a man and woman before, during and after they had real or simulated sex. According to the ruling, "The DJ said to [the female participant], 'I think you like giving oral as much as you like being on the receiving end, right?' She said yes ... She asked if she could bring some pictures of herself down to the station. The DJ said, 'Yes and when you come down you can give me some oral,' to which she replied yes and the DJ said, 'I'll bet your husband is saying no right now.'"
As the FCC noted, the person who heard the show and filed the complaint said she heard "sounds like 'someone was eating,' which are referenced later in the conversation as the woman having had 'a mouthful' prior to the beginning of the actual or simulated sex act, both comprising clear references to oral sex."
And last year the FCC ordered Infinity's WKRK-FM in Detroit to pay just $27,500 in fines for airing a lengthy program that included graphic discussions of defecation (i.e., guys who like to defecate on women), violence, and oral and anal sex.
All of those instances seem to be clear examples of broadcast material that's offensive. The FCC's ruling yesterday on Stern's infraction seems less obvious.
