PTC To Justice: Appeal Fox Profanity Decision

The Parents Television Council has put out an action alert to members asking them to make it clear to the Obama Administration that it wants the Justice Department to appeal the Fox profanity decision, in which a lower court ruled the FCC's profanity decision against Fox, and its indecency enforcement regime in general, was unconstitutionally vague.

Justice has twice sought extensions on filing that appeal (the latest deadline is April 21), and an FCC source told B&C that Justice had still not made the call on appealing the decision. The FCC has pointed out that without more direction from the court, its hands are effectively tied on enforcing its indecency rules.

"YOUR URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO KEEP FIGHT FOR BROADCAST DECENCY ALIVE!" PTC said in its "urgent" alert, adding that they needed to urge the president to stand up for "broadcast decency."

It was PTC's complaints that helped spur the FCC to crack down on fleeting expletives and nudity. "Unless the Solicitor General demands a review from the Supreme Court, the Second Circuit's ruling will stand," says PTC. "Unless the Second Circuit's ruling is overturned, the FCC will do NOTHING about broadcast indecency!"

http://allegianceanddutybetrayed.blogspot.com/2008/12/stranger.html

The Stranger

A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was in town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger ... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.

If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to our first major league ballgame. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn’t seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home ... not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn’t permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished.

He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked ... And NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents’ den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

His name?

We just call him ‘T.V.’.

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