Fergie's Tech Blog

FCC Backtracks on Two Charges of Indecency

From the "Double-Standard Bullshitter" Department.

Jim Puzzanghera writes in The Los Angeles Times:

It may be OK to swear on a news show, but profanities on other programs are still verboten, the Federal Communications Commission announced Tuesday.

The agency reversed a ruling it had made that use of the word "bullshitter" on the CBS program "The Early Show" was indecent. That decision in March was particularly controversial because news shows traditionally had wide leeway on language.

The incident involved a live 2004 interview with a contestant on CBS' "Survivor Vanuatu" who had used the word to describe a fellow contestant.

But this week the FCC said it was deferring to a "plausible characterization" by the network that the incident was a news interview, which merits a higher standard for indecency violations.

posted by Fergie @ 11/07/2006 10:57:00 PM