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Television

Parents Council criticizes FCC for case reversal

By Jim Puzzanghera
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Parents Television Council, which has flooded the Federal Communications Commission with TV indecency complaints in recent years, criticized the agency for reversing itself on two cases.

The FCC ruled Monday that use of the word “bullshitter” during a live interview on CBS’ “The Early Show” was not indecent because it aired on a news show. And it dismissed complaints about coarse language on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” because they were made against a station by a viewer outside its market.

Parents Television Council President L. Brent Bozell said the FCC arbitrarily created an exemption allowing broadcasters to categorize “virtually any programming” as a news show.

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The organization said 96 viewers in 28 states had filed formal complaints against “NYPD Blue.”

-- Jim Puzzanghera

TelevisionEntertainment & Arts
Jim Puzzanghera

Jim Puzzanghera covered business and economic issues from the Los Angeles Times’ Washington, D.C., bureau. He joined The Times in 2006 and won the paper’s Editor’s Award in 2009 for coverage of the financial crisis. He has worked in the nation’s capital since 1998 and is a two-time National Press Club award winner for Washington coverage. A Northwestern University graduate, he previously worked for the San Jose Mercury News, Newsday and the St. Petersburg Times. He left The Times in 2019.

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