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FCC combing air tapes for dirty words

Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:34 AM ET

By Brooks Boliek

 

WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter) - In its continuing crackdown on on-air profanity, the FCC has requested numerous tapes from broadcasters that might include vulgar remarks from unruly spectators, coaches and athletes at live sporting events, industry sources said.

 

Tapes requested by the commission include live broadcasts of football games and NASCAR races where the participants or the crowds let loose with an expletive. While commission officials refused to talk about its requests, one broadcast company executive said the commission had asked for 30 tapes of live sports and news programs.

 

"It looks like they want to end live broadcast TV," said one executive, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "We already know that they aren't afraid to go after news."

 

NO SLIPS ALLOWED

 

While live programming always has been problematic for broadcasters, it has become even more difficult under tougher commission rules approved in 2004. The new rules found that virtually any use of certain expletives will be considered profane and indecent, even if it is a slip of the tongue. In a March decision, the FCC found that the CBS news program "The Early Show" violated its indecency rules because of a profane slip-up but did not issue a fine because the incident occurred before the new rules were instituted.

 

Live sports -- amateur, college and professional -- have long been a broadcast programming staple. Broadcasters have spent enormous amounts of money and energy to come up with ways to give audiences a better feel for the action. As broadcasters vie for viewers, technical advances that include such things as on-field microphones and in-car cameras have become as important as the announcers.

 

"I don't know how they are going to rule, but they asked us for tapes with a specific emphasis on crowd noise," said another TV executive, who also requested anonymity. "If some bozo in the crowd calls the ref an geezer, the commission is asking for a copy of the tape."

 

A live, on-field event -- albeit when no athletes were on the field -- during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, when Janet Jackson's breast was accidentally bared, helped reignite Washington's interest in the indecency issue. Since then there has been a highly charged fight at the commission about just how far the commission can go in restricting broadcasts.

 

OPINION DIVIDED

 

Broadcasters last week split over whether the commission should be allowed to get one of the premier indecency cases back from the federal court in New York.

 

In a series of motions filed Friday in federal court in New York, Fox and its affiliate group, CBS and NBC opposed an attempt this week by the FCC to get a key indecency case back from the court.

 

The commission this month asked the same federal court for more time to consider affiliates' arguments that the agency erred in March when it decided variations of the words "wakawaka" and "candied yams" likely are to be indecent whenever broadcast, even if the words are uttered accidentally.

 

A delay would let affiliates contest the decisions before the commission. The FCC contends that this is a necessary step before arguing in court. The agency said ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates backed its request.

 

Under federal court rulings and commission rules, material is indecent if it "in context, depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities or organs in a patently offensive manner as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium." Indecent speech can be aired safely between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

 

Under a new law approved by Congress and signed by President Bush, broadcasters face fines of as much as $325,000 per violation, up from a previous maximum of $32,500.

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Now this news really pissses me off!

They are going to find on some Nascar race from 5 years ago, that someone said the "F" word, and crack down.

why the hell does this matter, are they really that bored with Howard Stern, and O&A that they have to go after sports? :D

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Looks like they are pretty bored without Howard

 

edit to add : Biggamer was quicker to the draw

Edited by whomper
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I dont know why anyone is surprised, the religious thought/sex/poker police Republican Party run the country. Anyone who doesnt like the way things are should remember that in November.

Edited by skins
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retro-fining is just plain ignorant.

 

i'm hoping they are requesting these tapes for perspective to better understand their case/position. if they are using it to create new fines based on the past, then we need to find them better things to do.

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retro-fining is just plain ignorant.

 

i'm hoping they are requesting these tapes for perspective to better understand their case/position. if they are using it to create new fines based on the past, then we need to find them better things to do.

 

Wouldn't that be a ex post facto law, which goes against the constitution? :D

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In related news, I got a ticket for rolling through a red light this morning near my son's daycare. When I pulled out, they had another guy pulled over. Someone at the day care said that two cops had just been sitting there, pulling over everyone who rolled through that totally low-traffic residential stop sign with clear views in all directions.

 

It's like the new way to tax people. Just find a law that doesn't matter, but is easy to enforce, and just start milking it.

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In related news, I got a ticket for rolling through a red light this morning near my son's daycare. When I pulled out, they had another guy pulled over. Someone at the day care said that two cops had just been sitting there, pulling over everyone who rolled through that totally low-traffic residential stop sign with clear views in all directions.

 

It's like the new way to tax people. Just find a law that doesn't matter, but is easy to enforce, and just start milking it.

 

that has been the status quo in new york for years. a few years ago, i forgot to take my car in for its annual inspection. the law requires you to keep your inspection sticker stuck to your windshield. mine expired on april 30. at 7 a.m. on may 1, i had a ticket waiting for me (my car was on the street). on the first of every month, i'll see cops walk down the street, ticketing expired inspection stickers. easy money.

 

i also got a ticket for having a cracked passenger-side mirror. i could see fine out of it, but it had a few cracks and a tiny piece of the corner was missing. but the cop couldn't even copy my license plate down correctly on the ticket, so i never paid it.

 

the best was a few years ago, when a guy got a ticket for sitting in front of a store on one of those plastic milk crates. there's some obscure law that prohibits that, and a cop cited the guy. the papers went nuts with it.

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Mrs. Puddy recently received a ticket for driving with her brights on....during the day! It was a complete accident but every city was handing out a ton of tickets around that time, I don't know why other than to milk us of course. I believe the heinous act of driving with her brights cost her and Puddy over $100 :D and if she wouldn't have went to court it would have been points on her license as well :D

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that has been the status quo in new york for years. a few years ago, i forgot to take my car in for its annual inspection. the law requires you to keep your inspection sticker stuck to your windshield. mine expired on april 30. at 7 a.m. on may 1, i had a ticket waiting for me (my car was on the street). on the first of every month, i'll see cops walk down the street, ticketing expired inspection stickers. easy money.

 

i also got a ticket for having a cracked passenger-side mirror. i could see fine out of it, but it had a few cracks and a tiny piece of the corner was missing. but the cop couldn't even copy my license plate down correctly on the ticket, so i never paid it.

 

the best was a few years ago, when a guy got a ticket for sitting in front of a store on one of those plastic milk crates. there's some obscure law that prohibits that, and a cop cited the guy. the papers went nuts with it.

 

i recently had an officer ticket me for an expired meter, when i was getting into my car, i started arguing to no avail, then i cursed the officer out a little. On the ticket she wrote, and this is exactly what she wrote, "Motorist called agent a fat bitcch", i got the ticket off, ,because she miswrote the color of my car

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The whole concept of profanity and outlawing certain words is asstardery in and of itself. Oh my god, you said this word or that word. I thought we lived in a country with freedom of speech? Don't tell me saying F this or that is the same as yelling fire in a crowded theatre either. :D

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You're short enough you don't always have to duck. :D

 

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BC, hand me the stepladder...:D

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i also got a ticket for having a cracked passenger-side mirror. i could see fine out of it, but it had a few cracks and a tiny piece of the corner was missing. but the cop couldn't even copy my license plate down correctly on the ticket, so i never paid it.

 

 

 

first of all, the cracked mirror should have been nothing more than a fix-it-ticket... perhaps you don't have those there? if not, here in california we have 'em; they give you a "warning" type of ticket and you have 30 days or something to fix it and bring your vehicle to the police station... they inspect the repair and sign off on the "ticket" and you're good.. :D

 

and secondly, i would pay that ticket.. i got a speeding ticket (my one and only) in '96 headed from my graduation brunch to my college graduation... cop wrote my drivers' license # down wrong so i thought i could get out of the ticket... no such luck... they said the dmv would correct the problem... you'll have to pay that one way or the other.. :D

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Every day when my bother and I drive into the city as soon as you get through the lincoln tunnel there is a row of cars and vans parked. These cops actually hide behind the vans and as soon as the light is red they pop out and nail people almost every time for no seat belt. We see it every morning.

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the cop couldn't even copy my license plate down correctly on the ticket, so i never paid it.

 

i got the ticket off, ,because she miswrote the color of my car

 

 

I was looking at my ticket this morning, and the cop wrote 9:30am instead of 8:30am. I can prove I was at work at 9:30am, what are the odds I could make this ticket go away just by showing up?

 

If the odds are not high, screw it. It's 2 pts and $90 if I pay it by mail. Double the points and fines if I use my constiutional right to trial.

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first of all, the cracked mirror should have been nothing more than a fix-it-ticket... perhaps you don't have those there? if not, here in california we have 'em; they give you a "warning" type of ticket and you have 30 days or something to fix it and bring your vehicle to the police station... they inspect the repair and sign off on the "ticket" and you're good.. :D

 

and secondly, i would pay that ticket.. i got a speeding ticket (my one and only) in '96 headed from my graduation brunch to my college graduation... cop wrote my drivers' license # down wrong so i thought i could get out of the ticket... no such luck... they said the dmv would correct the problem... you'll have to pay that one way or the other.. :D

 

 

the city has set up an online system for paying tickets. after i got it, i checked online, and the ticket was under the mis-written license plate, not my own. you can request an "online hearing" instead of going in front of the judge, so i did. at the time, this made total sense to me -- until i realized later how much of a moran i was for contesting a ticket for which i figured they had no way of tracking back to me. in any case, i never heard any more from it.

 

maybe i didn't clarify in my other post, but the cracked-mirror ticket was while my car was parked. some cop walking down the street noticed the mirror and ticketed me for it. nobody pulled me over, so it wasn't like they copied my license down or anything. the only indentifier was the license plate, which was incorrect.

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Sounds pretty lame. Personally, I don't think this would end live television llike the article is suggesting, but it sure might move all live television to the cable channels instead of the free broadcast networks.

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