NBC Joins Other Big Four Networks in Supreme Court Filing vs. FCC

NBC JOINS OTHER BIG FOUR NETWORKS IN SUPREME COURT FILINGS VS FCC
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
As expected, NBC asked the Supreme Court Friday not to take the Federal Communications Commission's appeal of a lower-court ruling declaring the FCC's crackdown on fleeting expletives arbitrary, capricious and unjustified. The NBC brief also talked about the unconstitutionality of the FCC's entire indecency-enforcement regime and why that also made the case "unripe" for review. NBC said a lower court got it right. "If the commission is not required to justify changes in its views as to the meaning of particular words (which is to say, speech) -- if it is permitted to redefine words at its pleasure, there is not effective limit on the subject matter scope of the commission's indecency jurisdiction," NBC wrote. In its brief, NBC argued that the entire indecency-enforcement regime was unjustifiable. NBC said the rise of other media, cell phones, the Internet, cable and satellite meant that broadcasting is hardly uniquely pervasive. It also pointed out that the V-chip is a congressionally mandated less-restrictive means of achieving the government's legitimate interest in protecting children. But since the lower-court decision was narrower and did not reach the constitutional question, NBC argued that the court could not hear the case without first dealing with those broader issues. "The fact that the court of appeals has not yet found occasion to address these issues consults strongly against immediate review," NBC argued.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6528433.html?rssid=193