Indecency down for the count?

Have the language watchdogs scored a knock-out punch against the forces of indecency?  Probably not – there are certainly edgy performers out there poised to slip over the line and others from all walks of life poised to utter a profanity near an open mic. But the fact is, there was almost no measurable protest from the citizens of America during Q3 2007.

The FCC took in a mere 368 indecency complaints during July, August and September of last year. That was down from 4,368 in Q2, and just about a light year down from Q1, when a lingering camera shot of a football fan’s t-shirt during a Fox broadcast of a playoff game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New Orleans Saints, expressing a less-than-savory opinion of the Eagles, fueled a banner indecency complaint crop approaching 150K.

RBR/TVBR observation: 368. That means that quite a sizable percentage of Americans didn’t find much at all to complain about. 99%, with a bunch of extra nines added after the decimal, to be exact. In fact, 150K is only 1% of the US population. This is despite the fact that it is now easier to lodge a protest than ever before in history. Just click and send an indecency watchdog prefab complaint or use the FCC’s website, which also invites your gripes of wrath.
A lot of the self-appointed guardians of the airwaves like to pretend that broadcasters have turned the airwaves into a 24/7 cesspool. This is further proof that American citizens disagree.

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