NYTimes.com Article: Songwriter Sues F.C.C. Over Radio Sanctions

From: mentalchatter@sympatico.ca
Date: Wed Jan 30 2002 - 18:59:53 CET

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    This article from NYTimes.com
    has been sent to you by mentalchatter@sympatico.ca.

    hey AJ'ers,

    Thought some of you would be interested in this bit of follow-up info. Go Sarah!

    -db-

    mentalchatter@sympatico.ca

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    Songwriter Sues F.C.C. Over Radio Sanctions

    January 30, 2002

    By NEIL STRAUSS

     

    In an unusual counteroffensive, a New York poet and
    performance artist filed suit yesterday against the Federal
    Communications Commission, charging that it violated her
    First Amendment rights when it fined a radio station for
    playing a spoken-word song by her with vivid sexual
    imagery.

    The artist, Sarah Jones, asked for a judgment in federal
    district court in Manhattan that the 1999 song, "Your
    Revolution," is not indecent as the agency found; for an
    injunction preventing the commission from enforcing the
    $7,000 fine against KBOO-FM, a listener-supported station
    in Portland, Ore.; and for a finding that the commission's
    ruling violated her free-speech rights.

    Lawyers who specialize in First Amendment cases said it was
    extremely rare for an artist to intervene legally in a case
    of this sort, which usually pits the F.C.C. against the
    station it has sanctioned. The suit also represents a
    further development in a debate about whether the
    commission is too strict or too lax in policing the
    airwaves.

    John Winston, the assistant bureau chief for enforcement at
    the F.C.C., declined to comment on the Jones case.

    The dispute began in October 1999 when a listener was
    offended by the song during a music show called "Soundbox"
    and complained to the commission. In May, the F.C.C. fined
    the station for broadcasting "unmistakable patently
    offensive sexual references" that "appear designed to
    pander and shock."

    The commission prohibits certain things from being
    broadcast when children might be listening: any of seven
    objectionable words or material that it deems patently
    offensive as measured by contemporary community standards,
    especially references to "sexual or excretory activities
    and organs."

    Ms. Jones said she was surprised that her song was declared
    offensive because she wrote it as an attack on the
    degradation of women in mainstream hip-hop. "My name was
    hanging in the air with `indecent' attached to it in this
    really problematic way, especially since my work is
    concerned with social justice and feminist issues," she
    said yesterday. "That it should be associated with sexual
    indecency and intending to shock is not something that I
    can just let sit there, partly in light of the fact that
    other material is played ad infinitum on mainstream radio
    airwaves that's really problematic. I'm not one for
    censorship, but let's not use a double standard that
    victimizes certain voices."

    While the song does not contain any of the seven
    objectionable words flagged by the F.C.C., it does make
    explicit sexual references, which paraphrase lyrics from
    rap songs to denounce them as misogynist and shallow.

    In July KBOO contested the fine, but no action has been
    taken, said Lisa E. Davis, a partner at Frankfurt Garbus
    Kurnit Klein & Selz, the law firm representing Ms. Jones.

    The People for the American Way Foundation, a liberal
    organization, is working on Ms. Jones's case. "I think it's
    very clear that the song is not indecent, even under the
    F.C.C. criteria," said Elliot Mincberg, a vice president
    and legal director at the foundation.

    In recent years the F.C.C. has been buffeted by criticism
    from within and without, from the left and the right. Some
    critics charge that it is cracking down too hard on radio,
    others that it is too lenient. Some say the commission's
    rules on documenting violations are too strict; others say
    that its enforcement rules are inconsistent. And still
    others say its decision- making process on complaints and
    appeals is too slow.

    During the last year, in particular, the commission has
    been in the spotlight. Complaints against two morning show
    hosts for sexually explicit banter - one on WKQX-FM in
    Chicago, the other on WDGC-FM in Durham, N.C. - were
    dismissed last year because of a lack of documentation.
    Earlier this month the commission reversed its decision to
    fine KKMG-FM in Colorado Springs, for playing the Eminem
    single "The Real Slim Shady" in a version that already had
    words edited out for radio broadcast.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/30/arts/30STAT.html?ex=1013413593&ei=1&en=8efa79c27fff3b0d

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