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Dealing with Indecency

Chion Wolf

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Betsy/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2006-25-2012.mp3

In the audio: Experts discuss the future of FCC regulation of TV and radio for indencent content.

For broadcasters, messing around with the FCC on indecency is like playing jai alai in a pitch dark fronton. You can't see what's happening. You don't know the rules. On the other hand, there's a tantalizing chance you might win. 
 
For at least two decades, radio and television programmers and personalities have fought this odd little war. The rules of combat are inscrutable.  There's almost no way to know what you'll get fined for until it happens. And there's no way to compare what you did to what someone else did and figure out why the other entity didn't get fined.
 
Victory and defeat are also hard to identify. A huge element in the Howard Stern craze that started in the nineties was his willingness to dance across the minefield of transgression. The FCC became an unwitting stooge in hid farce. And his employers were will ing to pay a lot in fines to keep that going.  

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Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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