Supreme Court strikes down current FCC rules for cursing and nudity on TV


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Supreme Court strikes down current FCC rules for cursing and nudity on TV

The US Supreme Court has prohibited the FCC from imposing fines and sanctions for spoken obscenities and nudity on television in a ruling today. While the court didn't tackle the constitutional validity of the FCC's authority to set indecency rules, its decision shows that it has begun to back away from policies that were implemented prior to the ubiquity of media over the internet. Broadcast networks work under a set of indecency rules no internet outlet is required to consider because they use scarce public spectrum, and prior to today's ruling, they faced severe penalties for airing curse words or nudity that violated the FCC's policy.

Source: The Verge

NSFW video related.

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I read today that BBC America bleeps out all the swear words in The Thick Of It. It's hard to see the point of broadcasting the show if they're going to cut out half the script.

Yeah i was re-watching Eastern Promises on Bravo the other day and the whole sauna fight scene was entirely cut from the movie. It went from two bad guys walk in the sauna directly to he his almost dead in the hospital. While i found the fight scene ankward (nude man fighting is not my cup of tea) the first time i saw the movie it's a really audacious scene and cutting it from the movie is just bad.

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It doesn't seem fair to make different medias go by different rules. Maybe Congress needs to address the issue?

Well it is fair, sorta.. The reason being that they use PUBLIC Airways.. Cable, Internet, etc, you can do whatever you want because it's private.. but the networks air on the public airways, that they are allowed to use under the supervision of the FCC.. In theory, the networks could all say screw it, and go Cable/Dish/IPTV/Internet only, and never deal with the FCC again..

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Yeah i was re-watching Eastern Promises on Bravo the other day and the whole sauna fight scene was entirely cut from the movie. It went from two bad guys walk in the sauna directly to he his almost dead in the hospital. While i found the fight scene ankward (nude man fighting is not my cup of tea) the first time i saw the movie it's a really audacious scene and cutting it from the movie is just bad.

They sometimes do that here (Australia) for some reason, which is strange since the content isn't "bad".

In quite a few episodes of Diagnosis Murder, they would cut out the actual murder scene, so you'd see a character walk around and then it'd cut to them investigating the body at the hospital (I remember reading once they cut out a fight scene in Smallville in which a character died/left, so the character just vanished from the show with a scene transition). What makes it so strange is that we have pretty lax laws regarding the content shown, a character dying isn't that bad (One of our main networks over here has a long running show on organised crime, characters often get their heads blown off and they show it, etc.)

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Obscenity rules are something best left in the 1950s.. Anyone who gets "offended" over anything is just a plain drama queen. Congress should make it illegal for advertisers or sponsors to break contract (pull ads, etc) over their own over-conservative sense of decency.They either sign a contract stating that they can't dictate content or they just don't make money. It should also be illegal for campaign contributors to pull funds from members of congress who vote for it.

Wow what a fantasy world that would be. Obviously some of that would be ridiculous because it wouldn't be feasible and it would be opening up a huge can of worms.. But what a world..

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One case involved NYPD Blue series. They DARED to show a womans backside. Dumb.

Actually, as I recall, the NYPD Blue episode you are talking about showed a man's backside.

edit: oh, and happy birthday

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This case yes, but the biggest NYPD Blue stink was over Charlotte Ross's nude scene as "Connie" in the episode "Nude Awakening."

And thank you for the HBD :)

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