FCC violating the First Admendment: let's make some arrests

[George at Orwellian.Org]

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0124/sotc.shtml
#    
#    Week of June 13 - 19, 2001
#    
#    Radio Can't Even Play My Jam
#    
#    Eminem is a man of many guises, but is he ready to be the new 
#    Mapplethorpe? On June 1, the FCC fined Colorado radio station 
#    KKMG $7000 for playing the "clean" version of Em's "The Real 
#    Slim Shady," the same one played thousands of times last summer 
#    by pop, rock, and r&b stations around the country-maybe the first 
#    time all those formats agreed on a No. 1.
#    
#    The commission-now chaired by Colin Powell's son Michael-found 
#    that the song contains "sexual references in conjunction with 
#    sexual expletives that appear intended to pander and shock," 
#    a description the artist could hardly dispute; in fact, the 
#    indecency standard is practically the subject of the song.
#    
#    "Sometimes I want to get on TV and just let loose, but can't/But 
#    it's cool for Tom Green to hump a dead moose," reads the 
#    transcript of the offending track in the FCC's decision. "My 
#    bum is on your lips . . . /And if I'm lucky you might just give 
#    it a little kiss/And that's the message we deliver to little 
#    kids/And expect them not to know what a woman's BLEEP is?"
#    
#    "I think all of America should feel threatened," says Def Jam 
#    founder Russell Simmons, who will lead a "hip-hop summit" this 
#    week at the Hilton. Last week Simmons received a Father of the 
#    Year award from the National Father's Day Committee at the 
#    Marriott Marquis, and found that Powell was a co-honoree.
#    
#    According to Simmons, Powell said he'd like to come to the summit, 
#    but on Friday Powell's staff called to say he had a scheduling 
#    conflict. "He said [this fine] was just a random case, and not 
#    to view it as an attack, but that's bullshit," Simmons says. 
#    "I asked him how the record was indecent, and he couldn't give 
#    me a clear answer." (The FCC declined comment.)
#    
#    Kathleen Kirby, KKMG's lawyer, isn't surprised. "FCC indecency 
#    rules are difficult to get your arms around, even for the agency's 
#    own attorneys." Nonetheless, she calls the fine "unusual" and 
#    says the station will appeal. Earlier this year, the commission 
#    imposed an equal fine on a Wisconsin station for "accidentally" 
#    playing the album version of "Slim Shady."
#    
#    Kirby is cautious about gauging the political implications of 
#    the fine. Powell was appointed by Clinton-Bush named him chair 
#    days after the inauguration-and is known as a strong advocate 
#    of the First Amendment, while Gloria Tristani, the other remaining 
#    Clinton appointee, has pushed for more aggressive indecency 
#    enforcement. Neither was involved in issuing the fine, which 
#    was imposed by career civil service employees in the FCC's newly 
#    created enforcement bureau.
#    
#    Will other stations be fined? FCC enforcement actions are driven 
#    by complaints from listeners, and the agency won't tell Kirby 
#    whether it has received any others.
#    
#    "This is probably a result of pressure from this organization," 
#    says Paul McGeady, director of Morality in Media's National 
#    Obscenity Law Center on the Upper West Side, which lobbied 
#    Congress during the first few months of Bush II for stepped-up 
#    enforcement.
#    
#    But even McGeady can't pinpoint what's wrong with the clean 
#    version. "The whole thing is offensive. It's got bestiality; 
#    he's talking about a vagina-what more do you need?"
#    
#    Actually, the bleeped word is "clitoris," and the question Eminem 
#    poses is similar to the one his lawyers will raise. "The Supreme 
#    Court said in the Pacifica case that the FCC can bar the 'seven 
#    dirty words' because radio is a uniquely pervasive medium that 
#    is particularly accessible to children," says Northern Kentucky 
#    University law prof Kenneth Katkin (who has done work for Kirby's 
#    firm).
#    
#    "But this looks a lot more like the FCC trying to decide what 
#    ideas kids can hear, and even the FCC would agree that's 
#    unconstitutional." Kids with Web browsers can find the complete 
#    lyrics of the "dirty" version on the FCC's own Web site,
#    
#        http://www.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/obscind.html
#    
#    along with shock-jock pedophilia jokes, lots of cusswords, and 
#    oral-sex tips from Monty Python. -Josh Goldfein