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College threatens legal action over $15,000 FCC indecency fine
June 5, 2006
CALIFORNIA
— A television station licensed through the San Mateo County
Community College District could be punished for airing a Martin
Scorsese-produced blues documentary if the Federal Communications Commission has
its way.
The FCC fined the KCSM-TV PBS station $15,000 after
receiving a complaint that the documentary contained “numerous
‘obscenities,’...in violation of the [FCC’s] rules restricting
the broadcast of indecent material,” according to the FCC’s
ruling.
“The
Blues: Godfathers and Sons,” which was aired on March, 11, 2004, from 8 to
10 p.m., included the words “fuck” and “shit” numerous
times throughout the documentary, according to the ruling.
The
community college formally appealed the FCC’s ruling in early May stating
that if the FCC does not reverse its decision they will seek legal action, said
Dave Mandelkern, president of the San Mateo County Community College District
board of trustees.
“We’re an educational television
station,” Mandelkern said. “We’re airing an educational
documentary as via a highly acclaimed producer and it’s basically being
treated as if it were a piece of pornography.”
Mandelkern said
the community college is ready to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if
necessary.
“We will appeal this to federal court and
we’ll continue to go through the appeals court process,” Mandelkern
said. “We have said as a district board, at this point, our intention is
that we will take this to the Supreme Court. If we cave on this my personal
opinion is...how can you say, with a straight face, that we believe in academic
freedom and intellectual expression on our campuses?” he
said.
One portion of the appeal refers to the ABC Television
Network’s airing of the film “Saving Private Ryan,” which
includes language similar to that in the blues documentary, KCSM General Manager
Marilyn Lawrence said. The World War II drama was shown at 8 p.m. in 2004
without receiving any repercussions from the FCC, Lawrence
said.
“[The FCC’s] rational is that [‘Saving
Private Ryan’] is fictional and was created by a screenwriter and
that’s OK because it is a dramatic interpretation, but real people saying
the same words, in their own words, that’s obscene,” Mandelkern
said.
However the FCC maintained in the ruling it issued that,
“...this case is unlike ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ where we
concluded that deleting offensive words ‘would have altered the nature of
the artistic work and diminished the power, realism and immediacy of the film
experience for viewers.’”
The FCC also stated that the
station violated the “Golden Globe Awards Order” that was put in
place in 2004 after U2 front man Bono said “fuck” during a live
broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards. The order states that, “the
‘f’ word meets the first prong of the indecency
test.”
However, Lawrence noted that KCSM aired the documentary
before the Bono incident took place and added that the station should not be
held accountable to standards that, it appears, are being applied
retroactively.
Meanwhile, the fine has caught the attention of
Scorsese who, in early May, sent a letter to the FCC in which he stated that he
has “deep concern over the adverse impact that the FCC’s actions
will have on the creative process generally,” according to an
article in Inside Higher Ed,
an online education news source.
Scorsese is not the only outsider
who is upset with the FCC’s decision. FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein
issued a
statement
in which he expressed his discouragement with the fine.
“It is
clear from a common sense viewing of the program that coarse language is a part
of the culture of the individuals being portrayed,” according to
Adelstein’s statement. “To accurately reflect their viewpoint and
emotions about blues music requires airing of certain material that, if
prohibited, would undercut the ability of the filmmaker to convey the reality of
the subject of the documentary.”
The station originally aired
the documentary in March 2004. In August, the station received a notice that a
complaint had been filed and was asked to submit “their side of the
story,” Lawrence said.
KCSM did not hear from the FCC again
until November 2005, when it asked the station to resend some documents
regarding the fine. In early 2006, the station was notified that a fine had been
levied, she said.
KCSM has not previously had any problems with the
FCC, but receiving the fine has affected the station, Lawrence
said.
“I would never air the ‘f’ or ‘s’
word now before 10 p.m.,” she
said.
—by Suzanne Bell, SPLC
staff writer
© 2006 Student Press Law Center
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