PTC Insider Article
December 2003

2003 Parents Television Council Victories

PTC Efforts are Making Indecency Enforcement a Priority for the FCC

In 2003, the PTC undertook a massive, multi-year, nationwide grassroots initiative to demand the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) do its job to enforce long-standing laws against broadcast indecency. The FCC has done virtually nothing to enforce those laws in the entire history of the agency. In fact, the FCC has never fined a television station in the continental United States for a decency violation in the entire history of the Commission's Enforcement Bureau. But because of the PTC's efforts, all that is beginning to change.

On April 30, along with the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, Kids First Coalition, Culture and Family Institute, Morality in Media, Family Research Council, Citizens for Community Values, American Mothers and the Salvation Army, PTC representatives met personally with three of the five members of the Commission. The other two were sent letters.

We pointed out that the FCC has never fined a single station for indecency, and we are sick and tired of this agency's refusal to do its job. The PTC outlined five specific steps that the Commission must take to ensure the decency standards are enforced.

They are:

1) The definition of indecency must address nudity, foul language, gross sexual innuendo and graphically depicted violence.

2) The Commission should monitor programming on broadcast television with funds stemming from its massive $ 278,092,000 budget.

3) The Commission should announce a specific time frame for responding to indecency complaints.

4) The Commission needs to direct the Enforcement Bureau to count multiple complaints about a single broadcast as multiple complaints.

5) The Commission must levy fines that will deter broadcasters from allowing indecent material to go out over the public airwaves.

The PTC demanded the FCC show movement on these five initiatives or face Congressional hearings. Because of the PTC's action, the Senate Commerce Committee (which has oversight of the FCC) is taking a long, hard look at the agency and its failure to uphold decency standards.

This summer, the Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation that gives the FCC more power to crack down on indecent material aired on broadcast television and radio. The Committee voted to increase fines levied against broadcasting outlets that willfully air indecent material. Right now, broadcasters face fines of $27,500 (a drop in the bucket to the multi-billion dollar media corporations) for a single indecency violation. The new legislation raises the maximum fine for a single violation to $250,000 and for continuing violations to $2.5 million!

The Committee's vote authorizing the FCC to increase penalties against stations will finally give the agency some teeth when enforcing the law. Fines will no longer be regarded as the cost of doing business.

We're also hearing from several of the FCC Commissioners that they agree with us. They agree that more of the Commission's resources need to be directed toward enforcing broadcast decency laws; that the agency needs to do a better job of responding to complaints in a timely fashion; that multiple complaints should be counted as multiple complaints, and not simply lumped together as one complaint; and that "indecency" needs to be better defined.

But more importantly, they have promised to move forward on our recommendations.

This issue is heating-up on Capitol Hill, and that's due almost entirely to the pressure and national attention the PTC and its 850,000 members have brought to bear.

The PTC is also flooding the FCC with indecency complaints. Since January, PTC members have filed more than 70,000 official complaints with the FCC about various broadcast decency violations. Eighteen thousand of those complaints were filed in response to pop star Bono's use of the "f-word" during a live broadcast of the Golden Globe awards on NBC in January of this year. Amazingly, after nine months of deliberation, the commission's Enforcement Bureau ruled that the "f-word" is not indecent if it is used as an adjective or an insult!

The PTC took the FCC's outrageous decision to Capitol Hill to demand an explanation for why a taxpayer-supported government agency is allowed to ignore the petitions of thousands of concerned tax-payers – and its own standards of decency! Several lawmakers shared our outrage. In a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Representative Chip Pickering threatened Congressional hearings, warning Chairman Powell that "such wanton abrogation of the Commission's duties will not be tolerated by the American people and their representatives," and called the FCC to reverse the Enforcement Bureau's decision. Stay tuned; the FCC decision has been officially appealed by the PTC.

Throughout 2003, the PTC and its members have played an integral role in the ongoing battle between big media companies who want more control of the broadcast airwaves and communities who want to determine for themselves what should air in their cities.

On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to relax ownership rules for TV and radio stations, thus allowing the powerful television networks to increase their market ownership share from 35% to 45%.

On July 23, Parents Television Council Founder and President Brent Bozell was invited by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) to testify at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on the effect the FCC's decision would have on program content. Bozell offered evidence that loosening media ownership restrictions will allow already sleazy television programming to become worse and more wide-spread.

In the weeks and months that followed, the PTC led a broad coalition of organizations lobbying the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to overturn the FCC's decision. Because of the PTC's actions, both houses voted to stop the FCC's rules from taking effect.

Other 2003 Victories