Fox Appeals FCC Rulings on Profanity at Billboard Music Awards

The Fox Network is appealing the FCC’s rulings on four letter words uttered by Cher and Nicole Ritchie at the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards, saying that the same words said during the broadcast of the film Saving Private Ryan did not earn a sanction. Fox’s attorney told a federal appellate court that such lack of uniformity leaves broadcasters without clear rules to follow. Read more in an article by CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin here, and by John Dunbar of the Associated Press here. The Dunbar article quotes David Solomon, formerly with the FCC, as saying, “I think there’s a significant likelihood that the FCC will lose.”