This year's indecency hullabaloo has pitted the Federal
Communications Commission against all manner of creative sorts:
U2’s Bono, Janet Jackson, Howard Stern, and for a while it looked
like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
Weeks ago, right after its airing on ABC on Veteran's Day,
the FCC received complaints over the use of the F-word in Steven
Spielberg’s war film “Saving Private Ryan.”
But yesterday FCC chairman
Michael Powell recommended the agency reject any indecency claims
associated with the airing. Powell's recommendation should incite a
mass sigh of relief from the 159 ABC affiliates that aired the film.
The process is still not over.
Powell needs at least two of the remaining four FCC commissioners to
agree with his recommendation. But it seems likely that two, if not
all, of the commissioners will agree with Powell’s assessment that
the graphic language that appears in “Private Ryan” is there
only as part of a truly accurate portrayal of World War II’s
Normandy invasion.
Because of all the indecency talk
this year, ABC’s decision to run “Private Ryan” unedited made
news even before it aired, with thoughts that around 20 ABC
affiliates would abstain from airing it because of fear of possible FCC
sanctions.
ABC, as stipulated in a deal with
Spielberg and his DreamWorks SKG movie studio, was contractually
obligated to air the film uncut, and had done so twice previously
without inciting the FCC's rancor.
But
despite last-minute urging from Vietnam veteran Sen. John
McCain to go ahead and air the movie, 66 ABC affiliates decided not
to, all because of fear of what the FCC might do.
And it’s hard to blame them.
Under the FCC’s current rules, indecency is vaguely defined, and
each violation can result in a fine of up to $32,500.
Most of the stations that chose not to show “Private
Ryan” are owned by just a few companies: Belo Corp., Citadel
Communications, Cox Broadcasting, Hearst-Argyle Television, Pappas
Telecasting, Scripps Howard Broadcasting, Sinclair Broadcast Group
and Young Broadcasting.
The FCC is currently in the midst
of trying to collect $550,000 from 20 CBS affiliates for
broadcasting Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction last
February.
But in the “Private Ryan”
case, despite receiving complaints after it aired, the FCC, or at
least Powell, says using the F word is OK mainly because it wasn’t
used in a sexual context.
Despite the uproar, or maybe because of it, the Veteran’s
Day telecast of “Private Ryan” still did fairly well in terms of
ratings. According to Nielsen, 7.71 million people watched the
movie, which accounted for ABC’s best Thursday night to date,
despite being covered by only 71 percent of the country.
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