FCC Seeks Fine Over Fox TV Show

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday proposed to fine 169 Fox television stations a total of $1.18 million for violating decency standards when they aired an episode of “Married by America.”

The FCC said it sought to fine the stations $7,000 each for airing in April 2003 an episode of the unscripted matchmaking program that showed sexually explicit and graphic scenes at a time when children were likely to be watching.

Commissioners voted 5 to 0 in favor of fining the stations after receiving 159 complaints. Not all Fox affiliates aired the episode.

The FCC has been cracking down on television and radio stations for decency violations after singer Janet Jackson bared her breast during the Super Bowl halftime show this year.

The FCC said scenes in the “Married by America” show -- including those showing a topless woman straddling a man, whipped cream being licked off of one woman’s bare chest and an underwear-clad man being spanked by two topless female strippers -- were sufficiently graphic and explicit to be deemed indecent.

The nudity was obscured by blurring, but “even a child would have known that the strippers were topless and that sexual activity was being shown,” the FCC said in its order.

“The material is gratuitous, vulgar and clearly intended to pander to and titillate,” it said.

Federal rules bar television and radio stations from airing indecent material, typically sexually explicit in nature, except during late-night hours when children are less likely to be watching or listening.

Fox denied that the show violated the rules.

“We disagree with the FCC’s decision and believe the content was not indecent,” said Scott Grogin, a spokesman for Fox Broadcasting Co., which owns 25 of the stations facing fines and is a unit of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

The stations will have 30 days to contest the fine or pay it. They could have faced penalties of as much as $27,500 each.

In the wake of the Jackson incident, which prompted the FCC to fine 20 CBS stations owned by Viacom Inc. a total of $550,000, Congress has been considering measures that would raise the maximum individual fine to as much as $500,000.