Has the FCC taken their indecency campaign to a new level?
Well, check out the FCC website for the lastest decisions, including a smackdown for a PBS station in San Mateo, CA that aired Martin Scorsese's documentary "The Blues: Godfathers and Sons" during Safe Harbor hours.
The entire complaint in PDF format is found here.
Some of the objections:
5. “The Blues: Godfathers and Sons” (March 11, 2004)109
72. The Programming. The Commission received a complaint alleging that San
Mateo County Community College District (“San Mateo”), licensee of noncommercial
educational Station KCSM-TV, San Mateo, California, aired indecent material over the station during its broadcast of the program “The Blues: Godfathers and Sons” on March 11, 2004 between the hours of 8:42 and 9:32 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.110 The complaint alleged that the broadcast, an episode of a prerecorded documentary series provided by the Public Broadcasting Service (“PBS”), contains numerous “obscenities,” including the “F-Word,” the
“S-Word” and various derivatives of those words, in violation of the Commission’s rules restricting the broadcast of indecent material.111 The complainant therefore asked that the Commission investigate and take appropriate enforcement action.
73. Thereafter, the Bureau sent a letter of inquiry to San Mateo, attaching a copy of the Complaint.112 In its response, San Mateo acknowledges that it aired “The Blues: Godfathers and Sons,” a documentary containing interviews of blues performers and a record producer, over Station KCSM-TV as alleged, between 8 and 10 p.m. on March 11, 2004, but not on any other dates between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. 113 With its response, San Mateo provided a DVD and a
written transcript of the program.114 San Mateo does not dispute that it aired the material described in the complaint. It states, “[t]he intent of the program is to provide a window into [the world of the individuals being interviewed] with their own words, all of which becomes an educational experience for the viewer.” Thus, San Mateo maintains that the language contained in the program was not “used in a prurient way, but rather as an infrequent conversational expression of the artist [being interviewed], and was not edited to remove their dialogue, which accurately reflected their viewpoints.”115 San Mateo represents that, subsequent to its station’s 109 FCC File No. EB-04-IH-0260.
110 See Letter from complainant to the Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau, Federal Communications Commission March 18, 2004) (“Complaint”).
111 According to the Complaint, the program includes the following objectionable utterances broadcast between 8:42 and 9:32 p.m.:
8:42 p.m..: “See those, ************? Gotta pay those motherfucking notes.”
8:51 p.m.: “What’s my job? You stupid ************, your job is to follow me.”
9:00 p.m.: “(BLEEP) it’s good to be next to you.”
9:04 p.m.: “there’s no white bullshit with [Paul] Butterfield.”
9:13 p.m.: “I’ll buy some (BLEEP).”
9:14 p.m.: “This is the kind of (BLEEP) I buy.”
9:23 p.m.: “(BLEEP) Blues” (used as an on-screen Chyron to identify a song title).
9:32 p.m.: “This poor (BLEEP).”
112 See Letter from William D. Freedman, Deputy Chief, Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau,
to San Mateo (August 4, 2004) (“LOI”).
113 See Letter from Marilyn R. Lawrence, General Manager, KCSM -TV/(FM), to David Brown, Assistant Chief, Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau (August 27, 2004) (“Response”) at 1.
114 Id.
115 Id.
Well, check out the FCC website for the lastest decisions, including a smackdown for a PBS station in San Mateo, CA that aired Martin Scorsese's documentary "The Blues: Godfathers and Sons" during Safe Harbor hours.
The entire complaint in PDF format is found here.
Some of the objections:
5. “The Blues: Godfathers and Sons” (March 11, 2004)109
72. The Programming. The Commission received a complaint alleging that San
Mateo County Community College District (“San Mateo”), licensee of noncommercial
educational Station KCSM-TV, San Mateo, California, aired indecent material over the station during its broadcast of the program “The Blues: Godfathers and Sons” on March 11, 2004 between the hours of 8:42 and 9:32 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.110 The complaint alleged that the broadcast, an episode of a prerecorded documentary series provided by the Public Broadcasting Service (“PBS”), contains numerous “obscenities,” including the “F-Word,” the
“S-Word” and various derivatives of those words, in violation of the Commission’s rules restricting the broadcast of indecent material.111 The complainant therefore asked that the Commission investigate and take appropriate enforcement action.
73. Thereafter, the Bureau sent a letter of inquiry to San Mateo, attaching a copy of the Complaint.112 In its response, San Mateo acknowledges that it aired “The Blues: Godfathers and Sons,” a documentary containing interviews of blues performers and a record producer, over Station KCSM-TV as alleged, between 8 and 10 p.m. on March 11, 2004, but not on any other dates between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. 113 With its response, San Mateo provided a DVD and a
written transcript of the program.114 San Mateo does not dispute that it aired the material described in the complaint. It states, “[t]he intent of the program is to provide a window into [the world of the individuals being interviewed] with their own words, all of which becomes an educational experience for the viewer.” Thus, San Mateo maintains that the language contained in the program was not “used in a prurient way, but rather as an infrequent conversational expression of the artist [being interviewed], and was not edited to remove their dialogue, which accurately reflected their viewpoints.”115 San Mateo represents that, subsequent to its station’s 109 FCC File No. EB-04-IH-0260.
110 See Letter from complainant to the Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau, Federal Communications Commission March 18, 2004) (“Complaint”).
111 According to the Complaint, the program includes the following objectionable utterances broadcast between 8:42 and 9:32 p.m.:
8:42 p.m..: “See those, ************? Gotta pay those motherfucking notes.”
8:51 p.m.: “What’s my job? You stupid ************, your job is to follow me.”
9:00 p.m.: “(BLEEP) it’s good to be next to you.”
9:04 p.m.: “there’s no white bullshit with [Paul] Butterfield.”
9:13 p.m.: “I’ll buy some (BLEEP).”
9:14 p.m.: “This is the kind of (BLEEP) I buy.”
9:23 p.m.: “(BLEEP) Blues” (used as an on-screen Chyron to identify a song title).
9:32 p.m.: “This poor (BLEEP).”
112 See Letter from William D. Freedman, Deputy Chief, Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau,
to San Mateo (August 4, 2004) (“LOI”).
113 See Letter from Marilyn R. Lawrence, General Manager, KCSM -TV/(FM), to David Brown, Assistant Chief, Investigations and Hearings Division, Enforcement Bureau (August 27, 2004) (“Response”) at 1.
114 Id.
115 Id.