Beyond Foul Words

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell deserves credit for advising the National Assn. of Broadcasters to develop a voluntary code of conduct. “You do not want to ask the government to write a ‘Red Book’ of dos and don’ts,” Powell said in a speech last month to broadcast industry executives. “Heavier government entanglement through a ‘Dirty Conduct Code’ will not only chill speech, it may deep-freeze it.”

He speaks from experience. Past attempts at drawing guidelines on what’s potentially indecent stumbled badly. FCC staffers questioned whether nudity made scenes in the Holocaust movie “Schindler’s List” off limits and whether a news program airing a wiretap of an organized crime leader’s obscene words would draw a fine.

Unfortunately, the chill wind already is blowing. Some in Congress want to extend the FCC’s regulatory reach to cable television, where, as Tony Soprano proves, almost anything goes. In March, the FCC expanded its definition of the “F-word” to include as-yet unidentified “equivalents.” Commissioners also have begun to “analyze other potentially profane words on a case-by-case basis.”

The campaign to clean up the airwaves is creating uncertainty that has prompted radio stations to drop songs that have been broadcast thousands of times. Sportscasters wonder whether they will be fined if fans are heard chanting obscenities, and newscasters fear spillover to legitimate news stories.

What all of this rule-making and worrying fails to understand is that many listeners and viewers want a more civil discourse about the airwaves, not just arguments about words.

The broadcast industry should certainly do a better job of helping viewers use technology capable of blocking violent, obscene and sexual content. So-called V-chips have been installed in most TV sets sold since 2000. Set makers, broadcasters and cable operators should make them easier to use, more prominent during setup and better publicized. Crumbling voluntary standards for early evening broadcasts should be shored up. And with the pendulum swinging against crudeness, broadcasters -- and cable operators -- will profit more from staying ahead of the trend than from desperately protecting gross-out humor and screamed insults.