Fox appealed an FCC ruling that dinged the network for two “indecent” expletives blurted on live TV at the Billboard Music Awards, one by Nicole Richie and the other by Cher. But today the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled against the FCC, questioning the commission’s new policy on “fleeting expletives.” FCC Chairman Keith Martin didn’t mince words reacting to the ruling:
“I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ‘shit’ and ‘fuck’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience…. The court even says the commission is ‘divorced from reality.’ It is the New York court, not the commission, that is divorced from reality in concluding that the word ‘fuck’ does not invoke a sexual connotation.”
You can’t buy quotes as good as that one.
Adds Swift Loris below: “What would happen if a reporter read that statement, in full, on TV? Probably be funnier if the naughty bits were conspicuously bleeped (Jon Stewart, you listening?). But I’d really love to see how the FCC would react if they weren’t.”