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Links: TV Execs Complain about FCC ''Standards''
Posted by Steven Wu on Saturday, July 17 @ 22:12:45 EDT Governance
As television executives gear up for the new season, they're starting to complain that the FCC's decency rules are just too vague.
Six months after the Super Bowl, writers, producers and network executives are in a state of confusion about what they are allowed to say and show on television. Some contend that election-year posturing in Washington — along with Jackson fallout, residue of Bono's celebratory expletive during the 2003 Golden Globes and even regulatory moves against Howard Stern and other radio shock jocks — is resulting in the most conservative television environment in years. Others say they barely feel the chill. . . .

[N]early everyone is wondering just how to spot the elusive line they're not supposed to cross. "The problem is the F.C.C. is trying to enforce a standard that doesn't exist," says Jeff Filgo, executive producer for "That 70's Show." "It's almost like they're saying: `What's indecency? That's for us to know and for you to find out.' You don't know if you've done anything wrong until you get letters." Damon Lindelof, a former co-producer of "Crossing Jordan" and a creator and executive producer of the new series "Lost," is equally perplexed. While "you can't say `goddamn it' on network TV," he says, some expletives are fine: "You can't say `Jesus Christ' as an exclamation, but you can refer to him as someone who made wine out of water. Where is the line? I wish I knew."

Chilling ensues.
 
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Re: TV Execs Complain about FCC ''Standards'' (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Sunday, July 18 @ 15:15:58 EDT
It'll never happen, but all the networks should take a full 24-hour day and broadcast nothing but a screen saying "censored by US government".


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Re: TV Execs Complain about FCC ''Standards'' (Score: 1)
by bagboy on Wednesday, July 28 @ 15:39:32 EDT
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I hope some network or TV producer uses this opportunity to challenge Pacifica. Now that the V-chip has been mandated in U.S. televisions for many years, and many cable systems and satellite systems have similar parental control utilities, the rationale for Pacifica no longer applies - it's time for it to go.

For those who don't know, Pacifica is the US Supreme Court case that permits the government to ban offensive/harmful-to-minors programming between 6am and 10pm.


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