FCC may fine Clear Channel for “Bubba”

The Federal Communications Commission announced its highest proposed fine ever — possibly… The Federal Communications Commission announced its highest proposed fine ever — possibly charging Clear Channel Communications $775,000 for broadcasting segments that the commission ruled obscene and indecent.

“Bubba the Love Sponge,” a Florida radio show, apparently ran segments the FCC found were “designed to pander to, titillate and shock listeners,” according to the Associated Press. And it ran these segments 26 times.

What both the court and public views as obscene has changed over the past 50 years, as court rulings have defined and redefined what qualifies as obscene. There’s a three-pronged test and pages of legal precedent to absorb, but what it boils down to is this: If a show has any scientific, artistic or otherwise redeeming merit — even if it’s sexually explicit — it’s not obscene.

“Bubba’s” Web site has a feature called “Dong of the Day,” so it’s probably best not to discuss potential scientific merit.

But whatever the Web site says, the FCC was right to rule that it’s not appropriate on the air. Despite the usual argument is that obscenity rulings are obsolete, and that parents, rather than the government, should decide what kids listen to, the ruling was fair.

There are no parental controls on radio, other than parents carefully monitoring every moment of their children’s day — an impossible task to ask of anyone — and it should come with the guarantee that airwaves be free of true obscenity. Note that “Loveline,” the sometimes graphic, but still informative, radio show — which later would become a television show — was never bothered by the FCC. Clearly, there is a stark line between information and obscenity.

And now Clear Channel is challenging the ruling, calling for the consistent community standards for what is considered obscene.

Sorry, Clear Channel, but the standards are consistent — there’s a clear standard for what’s obscene, and the FCC applies it fairly, as shown by another similar ruling.

For instance, it fined Young Broadcasting of San Francisco, Inc. for airing a television segment on KRON 4 Morning News where a man — a performer with the show “Puppetry of the Penis” — exposed himself. The FCC claimed that such an act would be foreseeable, and it would be, given the nature of the show.

There is a difference between obscenity and art — people attending “Puppetry of the Penis” know what they’re getting themselves into; people tuning for the morning traffic report don’t. Making such distinctions isn’t a threat to free speech; instead, it shows the merit of permissible speech, which is something even Bubba the Love Sponge should appreciate.