Tagged: fcc

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. --  Almost everyone agrees that broadcasters should be prohibited from broadcasting “indecent” material.  And Federal Communications Commission rules, in fact, ban such broadcasts.  So let me ask you this:  What, exactly, is “indecent” material?

    This is the issue argued last week before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case that challenges how the government regulates indecent broadcasts.  Note that the issue is not if the government can regulate such material rather, the question deals with how the rules are enforced.

    So, to start, I’d really like to know what “indecent” material is.  Not obscene or pornographic material; those materials already have pretty explicit definitions.  But “indecent”?

Quick, answer this question: how many candidates are running for president? For extra credit, how many candidates are republicans and how many are democrats?

Do you have the answer? Well, if you said anything but none, you’d be wrong. That’s right, there are no candidates. At this point there are presidential hopefuls, presidential contenders and presidential wanna-be’s. But there won’t be any official candidates until after the nominating conventions later this year.

So why is that important?

Well, it seems a lot of people, have complained to the Federal Communications Commission about something called the Equal Time provision of the Communications Act.