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Pacifica Reconsidered: Implications For The Current Controvery Over Broadcast Indecency, Angela J. Campbell
Pacifica Reconsidered: Implications For The Current Controvery Over Broadcast Indecency, Angela J. Campbell
Angela J. Campbell
This article tells the story behind the Pacifica decision, which found the FCC acted consistently with the First Amendment in finding that the broadcast of George Carlin’s monologue “Seven Dirty Words” violated federal law prohibiting indecent broadcasts, and considers the implications of Pacifica for two cases recently remanded by the Supreme Court. The issues on remand in the Fox and CBS cases are whether Pacifica justifies the FCC’s reprimand of stations for airing “fleeting expletives” and “fleeting nudity” and whether Pacifica remains good law in light of legal and technological changes. To tell the story of Pacifica, I researched the …
Pacifica Reconsidered: Implications For The Current Controversy Over Broadcast Indecency, Angela J. Campbell
Pacifica Reconsidered: Implications For The Current Controversy Over Broadcast Indecency, Angela J. Campbell
Angela J. Campbell
This article tells the story of how and why a single letter complaining about “dirty words” in a comedy routine broadcast by a radio station ended up in the Supreme Court and how a closely divided Court found that it was constitutional for the Federal Communications Commission to admonish the station for the broadcast even though the speech was protected by the First Amendment and its distribution by other means could not be could not be prohibited. This case, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, was controversial when it was decided in 1978, and it has become more controversial because of the …