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Supreme Court To Rule On TV Censorship
Khashishi writes "The LA times and the Associated Press report that the FCC v. Fox Television Stations case is being heard in the Supreme Court. The FCC policy would impose a heavy fine on use of 'indecent' words on broadcast television, which Fox and others are claiming is a violation of free speech. The case was appealed after being ruled in Fox's favor in a federal appeals court in New York. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia support the FCC policy of censorship." Here's a transcript (PDF) of the oral arguments.
Just what kind of topsy-turvy world is this new Obama era producing?!?!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
You know, Fox turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice!
I liked my submission's headline more. :(
Ginsberg said that there is an elephant in the room: The First Ammendment.
As I read it, I see another one:
Potential Harmful impact? Ok... PROVE HARM.
Thats all, prove harm. Even prove potential for harm. Whats the scope of this supposed "harm"? How does this "harm" happen? How do we even know its real?
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits
I remember listening to an interview with an artist who had been commissioned to create a monument to free speech. This is what he came up with: A giant outdoor blackboard. Free chalk and erasers provided.
In response to the question "Won't people write obscenities? Draw porn? Offend people?", he said "Of course they will. And that's part of what free speech does."
I am officially gone from
In the 80's, the Rhenquist Court time and time again decided that federal agencies did not have the power to create meaningful rules (i.e. agency rules and agency "law" could not carry the weight of, never mind trump, Federal law).
That was the "true" Conservative position. Funny how we've come full circle, deciding that now a federal agency is free to engage in prior restraint. Instead of, you know, just doing what they're supposed to do, which is to make sure people are using the right frequencies that they're supposed to use.
How?
The first amendment seems pretty clear that congress can't make any laws restricting speech, so how could it make a law delegating authority on speech either?
The FCC should ONLY be responsible for regulating who can use specific airwaves, not what can be sent over the airwaves. (And ideally the "who can use the airwaves" would be based on highest bidder to prevent any "you allow 'shit' and 'fuck' to be used on your program, you can't renew your license")
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
It isn't all that surprising to me. Fox's bias isn't about a stand for a particular set of beliefs, it is about making money for Rupert Murdock. Fox (the broadcast channel) has long pushed the envelope on broadcasting decency(especially measured by conservatives) more than any other broadcast channel because that separates them from the other broadcast channels and is what gets them viewers in the context. Fox news promotes a deeply conservative environment because it separates them from the other cable-news channels and that is what gets them viewers in that context.
"Think of the children."
Precisely how does the use of expletives ever harm children? Arguments against sex and violence do hold a small amount of water. After all, many people who watch scenes of sex will feel various biological cues to engage in it. There are links between sex on TV and teen pregnancy. Of course, given the existence of the internet and cable television, access to contraceptives would probably be a more effective strategy to prevent teen pregnancy...
The same, to a less extent, with violence. The reason television violence is not as harmful is that it is difficult for the 'children' watching it to actually engage in violence, even if watching it on TV makes them want to. While almost anyone can have sex, assuming they find a partner, it takes training and practice to hit someone and cause real damage. Firearms are usually not just lying around, either, and also take practice before they can be used effectively.
So there isn't a neurological pattern in your brain that lets a person go from the couch to doing whatever violence that person sees on TV.
But course language? It never was the word that was offensive, it was the meaning...and there are plenty of messages to get the meaning out without using the words.
Heck, the F word is so over-used that it really isn't that offensive. "We fucked" can mean "we had sex in a lustful, vigorous manner". "fuck you, I'm quitting" can mean "this job does not compensate me at what I consider market value for my services, good day sir".
The words in question begin with the letters "F" and "S." The Associated Press typically does not use them. "The reason these words shock is because of their association with a literal meaning," Chief Justice John Roberts said, suggesting his support for the policy
Then why are we allowed to say copulation and feces on TV?
The Bible says that it's your own responsibility to avoid temptation (2 Timothy 2:22). It doesn't tell you to lobby Congress to legislate away your temptations, it says to flee all lusts and temptations.
God's big into that "personal responsibility" thing that's out of fashion these days.
Freakin' FCC was sung by Peter, Brian, and Stewie in FG417 "PTV":
Peter: They will clean up all your talking in a manner such as this
Brian: They will make you take a tinkle when you want to take a piss
Stewie: And they'll make you call fellatio a trouser-friendly kiss
Peter, Brian, & Stewie: It's the plain situation! There's no negotiation!
Peter: With the fellows at the freakin FCC!
Brian: They're as stuffy as the stuffiest of the special interest groups...
Peter: Make a joke about your bowels and they order in the troops
Stewie: Any baby with a brain could tell them everybody poops!
Peter, Brian, & Stewie: Take a tip, take a lesson! You'll never win by messin'
Peter: With the fellas at the freakin' FCC And if you find yourself with some young sexy thing
You're gonna have to do her with your ding-a-ling, Cause you can't say penis!
So they sent this little warning they're prepared to do their worst
Brian: And they stuck it in your mailbox hoping you could be coerced
Stewie: I can think of quite another place they should have stuck it first!
Peter, Brian, & Stewie: They may just be neurotic Or possibly psychotic They're the fellas at the freakin FCC!
Scalia, who happens to be one of my favorite SCOTUS justices, is very reliable to uphold the originalist meaning of the Constitution. That is, unless he doesn't like the behavior that the law criminalizes.
See Gonzales v. Raich for a specific case where he throws his philosophy out the window because he doesn't like the idea of people getting high.
1. The entertainment and news divisions are run an operated separately, as they should be.
or
2. People that believe in social and/or financial conservativism (like me) can also appreciate off color humor (I own every season of Family Guy that's available on DVD).
or
3. Fox news and Fox entertainment division cater to different markets that they thought were being under served by their competitors
or
4. Some combination of the above 3.
Bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.-Oscar Wilde
Ok, you claim that the airwaves are "public" and that means that censorship there is ok?
I would say the opposite is true:
Since they ARE public airwaves, censorship there shouldn't be tolerated at all. Would public (through our representative government) has every right to restrict how they can be used being applied to a public place also be acceptable?
What the fuck? That IS ABSOLUTELY censorship. You are LIMITING what they can say. THAT IS CENSORSHIP.
It is just censorship that you agree with.
Free speech means that I can say whatever the fuck I want to, with no restrictions. Add restrictions, and you no longer have free speech.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
I guess girls in skirts higher than the knee are "asking for it" as well.
In a fundamental, biological sense, how are they not?