“The fact that ABC is still insisting there
was nothing indecent about the 2003 broadcast that depicted
a woman standing fully naked in front of a child is
mind-boggling. When the FCC reviewed the thousands of
indecency complaints filed regarding this episode, there was
no question – the scene was indecent. That fact has not
changed,” said Dan Isett, Director of Public Policy for the
Parents Television Council.
“This case is distinct from
Fox v. FCC in
that there is nothing fleeting or accidental about it. ABC
chose to air a scripted visual depiction of a fully-naked
woman from behind before 10:00 pm. The camera ogles her up
and down with saucy music playing in the background and a
child looking on. Later in the show, the adult characters
joke about the boy’s reaction to seeing the woman naked.
“The decency law has been upheld by
the Supreme Court and recently updated by Congress. To
assert that it is now irrelevant is preposterous. The
broadcast medium continues to be uniquely pervasive. The
National Association of Broadcasters actually launched a
campaign that touts the fact that ‘98.5% of the highest
rated shows are on broadcast TV.’ With more households able
to receive broadcast television signals, the medium is even
more pervasive today than it was at the time of the
Pacifica
decision.
“Parents who count on television monitoring
technology, such as the V-chip, to keep indecent content out
of their homes find that it is next to useless, not to
mention inherently biased since the networks rate their own
shows.
