WNYW/Ch. 5WNYW/Ch. 5 anchor Ernie Anastos is caught on live television saying “Keep f—ing that chicken” to weatherman Nick Gregory.
Welcome to prime-bleeping-time.
TV shows can get four-letter filthy after an appeals court ruling Tuesday declared the Federal Communications Commission‘s indecency rule unconstitutional.
The ruling, with provocative implications for evening TV, prompted cheers and jeers – and means the F-word might soon air on a network near you.
“The court says that dropping the F-bomb on prime time TV in front of kids is okay,” said Dan Isepp of the Parents Television Council. “The door has been kicked down.”
The group sided with the FCC and against six television stations, including FOX, ABC and CBS.
“I am shocked by such an anti-family decision,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps. “This decision gives them the unfettered ability to air whatever content they want.”
Nothing would change for at least 45 days as the FCC decides whether to appeal and – if the Supreme Court takes it up – until the case is ultimately decided.
The ruling only applies to broadcast TV in prime time and not to cable television.
If it stands, the decision would end the policy of fining broadcasters for foul language put in place after Bono used the F-word on the January 2003 NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes Awards.
“The FCC’s indecency policy is unconstitutional because it is impermissibly vague,” the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 32-page decision.
The ruling touched on everything from George Carlin‘s famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” to foul words by Nicole Richie on a Billboard Music Awards show – one of several cases that led to the decision. The decision was filled with words routinely bleeped out on television, from bulls— to d—head.
An “anti-family” decision? Let’s try for a “pro-parenting” and an “anti-television-as-babysitter” decision.
I want to know the content of the program and then let me choose whether my children watch it. If a program is supposed to be safe for kids and they drop an F-bomb, then I want heads to roll. Otherwise, the government needs to stay out of it.