Current Policy Analysis

The Principal policies used to address Broadcast Indecency are Telecommunication policies. According to the Concise Encyclopedia, Telecommunication is “[Telecommunication is] communication between parties at a distance from one another. Modern telecommunication systems—capable of transmitting telephone, fax, data, radio, or television signals—can transmit large volumes of information over long distances” Throughout history, many laws have been placed in order to, not only fix the problem, but to prevent it from becoming worse.

On August 13, 1912, congress approved The Radio Act of 1912. The Radio Act was, “the first [act] in the United States to require radio stations to be licenced” ( “Early Radio History”). Also, following the sinking of the Titanic, the act mandated that all ships continuously monitor distress signals. The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor held the power to impose fines, to revoke licenses and finally, to seize equipment. Implementing and enforcing the Act was the responsibility of the United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Herbert Hoover. However his powers were limited and he was not able to deny broadcasting licenses to anyone who wanted one or to reassign broadcast frequencies. The result was that many people perceived the airwaves to suffer from "chaos," with too many stations trying to be heard on too few frequencies.

The Radio Act of 1927, succeeded the previous Radio Act on February 23, 1927. This Act was enacted to bring order to the chaos of radio broadcasting. It was “intended to regulate all forms of interstate and foreign radio transmissions and communications within the United States... to maintain the control of the United States over all the channels of interstate and foreign radio transmission...and to provide for the use of such channels” (Early Radio History). The Act established the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), whose responsibility was to regulate radio communications inside the United States. “The Commission was responsible for granting and denying licenses, and assigning frequencies and power levels for each licensee” (US Legal). However, they were not given any power regarding Censorship.

On June 19th, 1934, The Communications Act of 1934 was enacted by Franklin D. Roosevelt. This Act, “consolidated existing radio, television, and telephone regulations and created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to oversee all interstate and foreign communications” (Roosevelt Institute). The FRC could only regulate national radio and radio communication between ships, but, the FCC covers any kind of wired and wireless communications. The FCC was created to replace the FRC and it also received the power to regulate television services from the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC).

In 1949, the FCC adopted the Fairness Doctrine, a policy that viewed station licensees as "public trustees"; deeming them responsible for addressing controversial issues of public importance. The key requirement was that stations allowed opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of views. However, President Reagan vetoed the Doctrine due to insufficient votes to override the veto.

On February 8th, 1996, signed by President Bill Clinton, The Telecommunications Act of 1996 included the Internet as a form of broadcasting. The goal of the law was to "let anyone enter any communications business—to let any communications business compete in any market against any other"(FCC). This allowed for Media cross-ownership such as, Comcast, Viacom and 21st Century Fox. The law mandated that the broadcasting industry develop a rating system to identify sexual, violent and/or other indecent programming. It also required TV manufacturers to install the V-chip in all newly manufactured tv sets.

Although there are no specific state laws regarding Broadcast Indecency, there are a few that concurrently deal with both federal and state; such as the required application for license renewal and the Miller Test.

Each broadcasting station must file an application for license renewal every four years. As stated by the FCC, in exchange for obtaining a license, each radio and television licensee is required by law to operate its station in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.” This means that it must air programming that is responsive to the needs and problems of its local community (FCC).

The Miller Test (also called the Three Prong Obscenity Test) is the Supreme Court’s test that determines whether something can be labeled obscene. It consists of three parts and if the subject in question passes, it is not protected by the First Amendment and can be prohibited. The Miller test was developed in the 1973 case Miller v. California. The first two parts are compared to the standards of the individuals community and the last part is compared to what is reasonable to the common good of the entire US. An important issue is that Miller asks for an interpretation of what the "average" person finds offensive, rather than what the more sensitive persons in the community are offended by.