WASHINGTON--The Supreme Court agreed today to rule for the first time in 30 years on what constitutes indecency on broadcast radio and television.
The justices will decide whether federal regulators may levy large fines on broadcasters that let expletives such as the "F-word" go out on the airwaves during the daytime and early evening hours.
Last year, the major networks won a ruling in New York that blocked the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing its new rule against the broadcast of "fleeting expletives."
Bush administration lawyers urged the high court to take up the dispute and to give the FCC a green light to enforce its crackdown on vulgar words. The government says broadcasters that use the public airwaves have a duty to protect children and families from being confronted with foul language.
Federal law forbids broadcasting "any obscene, indecent or profane language," but Congress has left it to the FCC and the courts to decide what is obscene or indecent.
In 1978, the court agreed with the FCC that a broadcast of George Carlin's "seven dirty words" monologue on radio at midafternoon was indecent. One justice noted that Carlin had repeated the vulgar words "over and over again as a sort of verbal shock treatment."
Afterward, the FCC adopted rules that said deliberately repeating vulgar words would be considered indecent. This, however, left open the question of whether a single, inadvertent use an expletive in prime time could result in a fine.
Four years ago, shortly after Janet Jackson briefly exposed her breast during a Super Bowl halftime show, the FCC adopted a strict rule against "occasional or fleeting expletives," such as the "F-word" or the "S-word," as the lawyers put it.
FCC officials say they were prompted to act after hearing complaints following the live broadcast of several Hollywood award programs. Singer Bono of U2 exulted upon winning a Golden Globe for an original song, calling it "really, really f------ brilliant." Entertainer Cher described a career achievement award on another program as a rebuke to her critics. "So, f--- 'em. I still have a job, and they don't," she said.
The commissioners rejected the defense that Bono had used the F-word as an adjective, not a curse.
In their defense, the TV networks say they have firm policies against the use of vulgar words. They are not included in scripts, for example. But on occasion, they say, these words have slipped passed monitors and gone on the air when a guest performer appears on a live broadcast.
