Is Censorship Constitutional?

PoliticalChic

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Oct 6, 2008
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"Explicit sex, violence, and profanity-laced dialogue—how much worse can prime-time television get? Well, thanks to a new US federal court decision, TV content is likely to slide still further, even faster.

This week a United States appeal court threw out the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) current “decency policy,” siding with several broadcasters who claimed that the policy infringed their First Amendment right to free speech. The FCC’s regulations forbade broadcast TV from airing “patently offensive” content involving “sexual or excretory organs or activities” during hours when children were likely to be watching.

In its decision on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held that that the current FCC policy was unconstitutionally “vague,” creating a “chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here.” Without clear standards to define patently offensive and indecent content, the judges worried that broadcasters would risk sanctions for ambiguous content.

The Parents’ Television Council, an advocacy group that monitors media content and its effects on children, believes otherwise. The court opinion, says the PTC, “authorized the broadcast networks’ unbridled use of the ‘f-word’ at any time of the day, even in front of children.”

Unfortunately for families, the cultural momentum is clearly pushing towards more profanity and graphic content on TV. "
http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/7596/


So, where do parents stand on this decision?

Is this a liberal/conservative issue, and if so...where would each side stand?
 
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It will be up to the consumer. We hold the power to turn the ding dang thing off. No watching the shows, no ratings, no more shows like that. If they keep trying to push it cancel your cabel or dish subscription. They will get the message really, really quick. Hit them in the money belt.
 
"Explicit sex, violence, and profanity-laced dialogue—how much worse can prime-time television get? Well, thanks to a new US federal court decision, TV content is likely to slide still further, even faster.

This week a United States appeal court threw out the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) current “decency policy,” siding with several broadcasters who claimed that the policy infringed their First Amendment right to free speech. The FCC’s regulations forbade broadcast TV from airing “patently offensive” content involving “sexual or excretory organs or activities” during hours when children were likely to be watching.

In its decision on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit held that that the current FCC policy was unconstitutionally “vague,” creating a “chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here.” Without clear standards to define patently offensive and indecent content, the judges worried that broadcasters would risk sanctions for ambiguous content.

The Parents’ Television Council, an advocacy group that monitors media content and its effects on children, believes otherwise. The court opinion, says the PTC, “authorized the broadcast networks’ unbridled use of the ‘f-word’ at any time of the day, even in front of children.”

Unfortunately for families, the cultural momentum is clearly pushing towards more profanity and graphic content on TV. "
Court’s decency ruling: ‘Parents, you are on your own’


So, where do parents stand on this decision?

Is this a liberal/conservative issue, and if so...where would each side stand?

I'm glad they kicked it out. The policy was waaaay too vague.
 
Polite speech doesn't need any protection. It's the impolite speech that needs it because most people focus their censoring efforts on that type of speech.
 
Vote with your remote. If you don't like it, don't watch it and don't let let your kids watch it. When the ratings fall the shows will lose advertising revenue, no longer be profitable and be cancelled. The free market at work, right?

The second and more difficult alternative is to work toward and support more non-commercial television programming that isn't concerned with whether sex sells. But that takes both money and effort, so somehow I don't see that happening. :lol:
 

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