All Praise Fox!

Well, at least for their recent victory against another 'evildoer' of the airwaves. Yesterday, Fox won a verdict against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in a case which centered around Cher and Nicole Richie blurting out expletives at the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards which was shown on Fox. The FCC had ruled that the expletives had violated "decency regulations". Fines for such violations can lighten the offending network's wallet to the tune of $325,000 (and possibly higher for other, Janet Jackson-esque behavior). Apparently, no fines were imposed for the violations at hand.

Fox had challenged the FCC's decision to the appeals court, arguing that the government's decency standard was unclear and violated free speech protections and that the rulings had contradicted findings in past cases.

The three-member appeals panel focused on whether expletives were used repeatedly or were only uttered fleetingly. The FCC had argued that, under certain conditions, one utterance of an expletive can rise to the indecency standard.

...

Fox said it was "very pleased with the court's decision" and that it believes "that government regulation of content serves no purpose other than to chill artistic expression in violation of the First Amendment."

Whole article here. (Loads in new window/tab)

This reminds me of a senior prank of which I was a part back in high school. 10 of us (with the financial backing of well over 100 others) acquired 10,000 4 oz. Dixie Cups and piled them into the hatchback of our buddy John Dias. We then used some 007 maneuvers to enter our school through the roof, block out the motion sensors, set up a network of water hoses and logistics and begin to fill the student center with cups of water. We got just over 1/2 way when the cops showed up with guns and expressed their discontent with the whole shebang. We, quite obviously, were suspended by the school for 5 days. Apparently, someone in the administration decided that was a cakewalk, so they petitioned the Boulder Valley School District and got an additional 5 days tacked on under a "habitual offender" clause.

For about a year prior, one of the other cup-layers named Loring Harkness and I had volunteered as defense attorneys for the Boulder County teen court. We very much wanted a hearing about the extra 5 days where we could plead our case, but our parents shut us out of everything. Loring's mother is an attorney, my father was an esteemed professor and the district barely paid them any mind. Nevermind that 9 of the 10 miscreants were honor students and had never so much as chewed gum in class, we were permanently labeled habitual offenders.

The FCC has, is and will continue to try to pull this sort of thing. They will attempt to make the utterance of one four-letter word "indecent" and will continue to impose their will and censorship on what comes across the airwaves. In the case of Fox News and their campaign of slanted, bigoted chickenhawkery, such censorship may benefit the American people but at a cost of limiting the creative expression of our culture.

So, in this very odd twist of events, let us stand and raise our glasses to the victors, the Fox network. Now, if only the FCC can nail 'em for the pile of bollocks that is Fox News.

Oh, and we got our revenge on the Fairview High School administration. From 10 guys returning to class in wife-beaters with prison numbers and "habitual offender" scrolled on the front, to a hedge trimmed in a the shape of a phallus to my very visible snubbing of the vice principal as she demanded I remove my offensive attire. My response:

"What are you going to do? Suspend me?"