WASHINGTON, DC – Fox Broadcasting is becoming more aggressive in its dealings with the Federal Communications Commission about indecency fines the company feels it shouldn’t have to pay.On Monday, Fox said it will not pay a $91,000 fine the FCC levied against a 2003 episode of the long-cancelled reality show Married by America. According to the FCC, viewers complained about digitally obscured nudity and whipped-cream-covered strippers depicted in the episode. In 2004, a whopping $1.2 million was levied against all 169 Fox-owned and -affiliated stations that aired the episode, but last month the FCC reduced the fine to cover only the 13 stations nationwide from whose markets the FCC actually received complaints.
Despite the reduction, Fox still declined to pay. In a statement released Monday, the network called the fine “arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with precedent and patently unconstitutional.” Instead, it has asked the FCC to reconsider — an unusual move in a system under which broadcasters typically write a check to the U.S. Treasury and then appeal, negotiate for a lower dollar amount or take their cases to court. In situations where broadcasters prevail, they can wait years for a refund from the FCC.
The skirmish over the Married by America fine puts Fox at odds with the FCC on two fronts: The network is also battling the watchdog in the Supreme Court over fines levied against spur-of-the-moment vulgarities uttered during live awards-show broadcasts that occurred in 2002 and 2003. The case, FCC v. Fox Television Stations, represents the first time since 1978 that the court has taken up the issue of “indecent speech” on the public airwaves.
Fox is part of Rupert Murdoch’s notoriously conservative News Corp. empire, an entity valued at about $60 billion that also owns 20th Century Fox studios, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, European and Asian satellite television networks, MySpace and HarperCollins Publishers, among other assets.
