Wednesday March 15, 2006

The FCC Strikes Back

The FCC handed down more than $3 million in new fines for televised indecency today, citing “the public’s growing concern about the content of television programming.” As I’ve noted before, this growing concern curiously expressed itself as an 83 percent drop in indecency complaints last year. The steady decline in such concern over the last two years is illustrated by this chart.

Nevertheless, the new fines put the commission well on the road to topping the $7.9 million in fines levied in 2004. And it looks like new commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate will be along for the ride. The Republican appointee joined with chairman Kevin Martin and Democratic decency zealot Michael Copps in all of today’s decisions, and even questioned some cases in which the commission did not issue fines. You can read her full statement here (pdf).