FCC Commissioner Broaches Expansion of Obscenity Code

FCC commissioner Gloria Tristani suggested that existing laws against obscenity on television could legally be significantly broadened to apply to violent images, not just sexual content.

Tristani, a Democrat who joined the Federal Communications Commission in 1997, made her comments in the keynote speech to the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s Conference on Children and Media on Monday.

Based on legal research she has seen, Tristani said, “I am now convinced that as strong a case can be made for violence as obscenity, as for sex as obscenity.”

Her remarks were received coolly by many conference attendees, several of whom questioned whether such a change would hold up in court. The conference drew a broad range of academics, children’s advocacy group members and programming executives from PBS, the commercial broadcasters and cable.

Peggy Charren, founder of Action for Children’s Television, said she disagreed with Tristani, noting she would rather “encourage choice” with positive shows for children rather than ban programs from the airwaves.

Annenberg senior researcher Amy Jordan said existing initiatives--such as an incentive for stations to provide three hours of weekly educational shows and the V-chip device to block objectionable programming--should be given a chance to succeed “before we resort to censorship.”

Tristani insisted in her speech, however, that “we do not have to choose between protecting our children and protecting the First Amendment.”

Elsewhere in her speech, Tristani said the FCC has erected so many procedural barriers to reporting violations of the much-broader indecency standards on the airwaves that “indecency enforcement has virtually become nonexistent.”