TV Watch/FCC Letter (pdf format)

You may not know it, but TV programs are already being changed or not aired at all, out of fear of government fines. It’s what Americans don’t see that may anger them.

• When CBS decided to rebroadcast the documentary 9/11, 56 CBS affiliates – covering nearly 11% of US households – either refused to air the show or moved it to the ‘safe harbor’ out of fear they would be fined for the coarse words uttered by rescuers during the attacks. The program contains the only known footage of the first plane flying into the World Trade Center towers.

• In response to 2006 FCC fines against a Martin Scorsese documentary about the blues and out of fear of recently increased fines, PBS has begun instructing its producers to self-censor all of its shows, including news programming like the acclaimed Frontline.

• Scenes from the previously approved pilot of the WB series The Bedford Diaries were later censored by the network, against the wishes of the series director, in light of recent FCC enforcement decisions.

• Garrison Keillor’s national, daily five-minute poetry and history program was canceled by a Kentucky radio program after the word ‘breast’ was spoken during a reading. After an outcry from the community, the show was reinstated.

• ABC now alters language and images in the long-running, Emmy Award-winning N.Y.P.D. Blue even though the now-edited content has been a staple of the show for over a decade.

• Fearing FCC fines, more than 80 percent of PBS affiliates declined to air an unedited version of the Frontline documentary “A Company of Soldiers.”

• Phoenix TV stations dropped coverage of a live memorial service for Pat Tillman, the former football star killed in Afghanistan, because of language used by mournful family members.

• One third of the country wasn’t able to watch Saving Private Ryan on Veteran’s Day 2004, when stations declined to air it fearing action by the FCC.

• Shows like Antiques Roadshow must now screen items for ‘indecency,’ including such pieces of Americana as famous lithographs of Marilyn Monroe and illustrations of the female form in artwork from World War II bomber planes.

• The FCC investigated NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies in Athens because historical depictions of Greek art and dance appeared in the broadcast.

• For a documentary about South Africa, scenes of Nelson Mandela at a dance event were cut out because some women in the background were partially unclothed, as is the cultural norm in Africa.

• FOX edited testimony in The Jury (which examines the jury system) in a program involving child sexual abuse, even though it went to the crux of the case and the jury’s verdict.

• In the wake of FCC enforcement decisions, an episode of That 70s Show that won an award for its treatment of sexual health in a responsible manner has been shelved for reruns, even though it drew no complaints when it first aired.

• 80 percent of PBS affiliates rejected broadcast footage from the time leading up to the Iraqi elections and the battle for Fallujah because of explicit language used by the soldiers.

• A Family Guy episode that aired 5 without incident years ago was later edited to remove a view of an animated character’s buttocks. In another episode, an animated depiction in of a character breast-feeding was also altered.

• An episode of ER was edited to remove a brief shot of the exposed breast of an 80-year-old woman receiving emergency care.