Defending speech is a tough job

Fox sure doesn't make it easy to try to defend free speech against the FCC.

"Certainly broadcasters and cable operators have significant First Amendment rights, but these rights are not without boundaries," he wrote. "They are limited by law. They also should be limited by good taste."

He emphasized that view when he dissented from a decision by the commission in an indecency case over an episode of the "Keen Eddie" show. In that case, decided last November, the agency did not to [sic] penalize Fox for an episode in which three men hired a prostitute to get semen from a horse for the artificial insemination of another horse.

"This order involves a television program that the majority admits 'contains references of a sexual nature that were broadcast at a time of day when children were likely to be in the audience,' " he wrote in that opinion. "Yet the majority concludes that the program, in which a prostitute is hired to sexually arouse a horse by removing her blouse and to 'extract' semen from the horse, is not indecent because the prostitute is 'never seen actually touching' the horse. Despite my colleagues' assurance that there appeared to be a safe distance between the prostitute and the horse, I remain uncomfortable. I respectfully dissent."

"Uncomfortable." Eh, eh.

And what, exactly, is meant by "safe distance?"

Well, if Fox is truly going to be fined every time they exhibit bad taste, then we call all exult as Rupert Murdoch pays enough in FCC fines to shore up the Medicare shortfall, but I doubt that will really happen.

But, um, I believe "Keen Eddie" is intended to be a comedy. Haven't seen the show so I don't know the context of the particular scene to which Kevin Martin refers to, but I am guessing it was being played more for a laugh than for titillation -- the idea that a couple of blokes would think that a horse could be aroused by the sight of a woman's breasts is mildly amusing, I guess.

And that sort of sums up why this story annoys me. The Times does not ask a couple of basic questions. First, what did the ultimate arbiters of taste on TV rule on this show? In other words, did audiences watch it and was it renewed? No, and no (it got picked up by Bravo!, or, the network that brings you Monty Python's Flying Circus and 23-1/2 hours of dross). I thought, after all, that Republicans generally left it up to the market to decide, not the guvmint.

Second, how 'bout some other examples of what makes young Kevin "uncomfortable." I mean, prostitute + horse + semen is pretty easy. Moreover, since he seems to be fast becoming a virtual FCC commissioner, what else is Brent Bozell complaining about?