Monday, April 8, 2013

TALKERS legal editor Steven J.J. Weisman writes that it "seemed particularly fitting" that the FCC chose April Fools' Day to announce it was cleaning out its backlog of broadcast indecency complaints by more than 1 million filings. How did they deal with that many complaints in six months. Easy, says Weisman, "These cases were summarily dismissed for various reasons, such as being beyond the FCC's five-year statute of limitations, involved cases outside of the FCC's jurisdiction, contained insufficient information or were not actionable due to previous established precedents. Cases were also dismissed for being, in the FCC's words 'too stale to pursue' although there is no FCC definition of staleness." Weisman also notes that the Commission reassures the public it is "actively investigating" what it referred to as "egregious indecency complaints" and will continue to do so. "What actually makes a case 'egregious' is not very clear because there is no definition of 'egregious' in the FCC regulations where it seems filth is in the eye of the beholder. Apparently egregious violations of the indecency rules is the FCC's new standard for action." Sharpen your pencils because the FCC is asking for your thoughts on its indecency policy. You have until May 1 to get those ideas to Washington. But before you do, read Steven J.J. Weisman's complete analysis of the FCC's recent indecency odyssey here:

http://www.talkers.com/2013/04/08/fcc-sweeps-indecency-complaints/