News-Record.com

You might or might not be surprised to know that the number of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission about allegedly indecent material on the broadcast networks has grown astronomically in the past couple of years. But I'll bet you'll be surprised about why:

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, "a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes."

What Powell did not reveal -- apparently because he was unaware -- was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 --99.8 percent -- were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

In politics and activism, this is what's called an Astroturf campaign -- a campaign that looks like a grass-roots effort but is really organized by a relatively small group of people, usually a group with an agenda, frequently an agenda about which the group is being, well, less than fully forthcoming, shall we say.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints -- aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS -- were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1. (The agency last week estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints about broadcast indecency so far this year; the Super Bowl broadcast accounted for over 540,000, according to commissioners' statements.)

The prominent role played by the PTC has raised concerns among critics of the FCC’s crackdown on indecency. "It means that really a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda is trying to censor American television and radio," said Jonathan Rintels, president and executive director of the Center for Creative Voices in Media, an artists’ advocacy group.

PTC officials disagree.

"I wish we had that much power," said Lara Mahaney, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based group. Mahaney said the issue should not be the source of complaints, but whether programming violates federal law prohibiting the broadcast of indecent matter when children are likely to be watching. "Why does it matter how the complaints come?"

I actually have an answer for that question, Lara, but first, some background.

Indecent programming is programming that deals with sexual or excretory organs or functions in a manner that is "patently offensive" by "contemporary community standards." It is constitutionally protected -- yes, you read that right -- but limited by the FCC to broadcast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when children aren't likely to be in the audience.

Now, Lara, to answer your question: When 99.9% of the million-plus complaints are coming from one group, and that group has demonstrated from the sheer volume of its complaints that it neither understands nor cares about the legal definition of indecency, then your group is wasting the taxpayers a ton of money in a time of record-breaking deficits.

Even given that the definition of indecency is broad enough to drive a truck through, does anyone really think that the broadcast networks air close to 1,000 indecent segments per year (outside the 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. window)? Even if there are, on average, 1,000 complaints per segment -- which is a fantastically high estimate -- there would still be more than 1,000 such segments airing on broadcast TV every year based on current complaint numbers. If you watch any over-the-air TV programming at all, you know that's not the case.

So, Lara, you and your group need to stop wasting my tax money. Also, you need to know that Title 47, Section 326 of the U.S. Code forbids the FCC from censorship, so stop trying to make the FCC play national nanny, mmkay?