The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday that it would fine 169 Fox television stations $7,000 each, or a total of $1.18 million, for violating indecency rules when it showed a particularly graphic episode of the show “Married by America” last spring.
… more from the NYTimes – 169 Fox Stations Fined in Indecency Case
169 Fox Stations Fined in Indecency Case
By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: October 13, 2004
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 – The Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday that it would fine 169 Fox television stations $7,000 each, or a total of $1.18 million, for violating indecency rules when it showed a particularly graphic episode of the show “Married by America” last spring.
Advertisement
The show, one of the reality’ programs in Fox’s lineup, features a group of single adults who agree to be engaged and marry, even though they had never previously met.
The commission found an April episode of the show violated the indecency rules through a series of sexually suggestive and explicit scenes.
“The material is gratuitous, vulgar and clearly intended to pander to and titillate,” said the commission’s order, which was unanimously approved by the five commissioners.
The order noted that at least one Fox affiliate, WRAZ in the Raleigh- Durham area of North Carolina, had refused to broadcast the show and would not be penalized. That station is owned by the Capitol Broadcasting Company, which has long been critical of the content of various programs and has been one of the few broadcasting companies to oppose the commission’s efforts to deregulate the media ownership rules.
The Fox broadcasting network, which owns 25 of the stations, issued a statement shortly after the commission decision that suggested that it would appeal the action.
“We disagree with the F.C.C. decision and believe the content is not indecent,” said Joe Early, a spokesman for the broadcasting company.
In the aggregate, the fine is the largest indecency penalty ever levied by the commission against a group of television stations, and it caps a series of other indecency fines in recent months.
Three weeks ago the commission proposed a fine of $550,000 against the CBS division of Viacom for an incident during the Super Bowl halftime show when the singer Janet Jackson’s breast was bared.
In that case, the commission did not levy a fine against the affiliates. The commission sought to distinguish the CBS case from the Fox decision by noting that “Married by America,” unlike the Super Bowl, was a taped episode that could have been pre-empted by the affiliates.
Earlier this year, the commission reached a settlement with Clear Channel, the nation’s largest radio station owner, to settle a series of indecency complaints for more than $1.7 million. That settlement was on top of a $755,000 fine imposed on Clear Channel for graphic and sexually explicit material broadcast in Florida on the “Bubba the Love Sponge” program, whose host, Todd Clem, was dismissed.
