LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) The Olympics are meant as a showcase for athleticism and sportsmanship, a tribute to the competitive human spirit. The Olympics may also be indecent by the stringent standards of the FCC.
According to media reports, the Federal Communications Commission has requested a tape of the Opening Ceremony of the 2004 Summer Games from Athens. The multi-nation parade aired on tape delay in the United States on August 13.

While it's possible that FCC chief Michael Powell may just want to see a friend on the Sri Lankan delegation, it's more likely that Powell is examining the possibility of adding NBC to the list of recently fined major networks. Although the FCC won't confirm the exact nature of the investigation, The Hollywood Reporter claims that at least one indecency complaint was filed.

In honor of the Olympics' birth in Athens, the ceremony featured performers dressed as classic Greek statues and as ancient Gods. There was also an interpretive dance segment featuring a pregnant woman and her apparent mate. It's unclear which of the myriad possibilities raised the ire of the FCC's complaining party.
Amusingly, NBC recently picked up a prize from the Family Friendly Programming Forum, which deemed the network's Olympics coverage to be television's most family-friendly special of 2004.

Editorial: TV morals / An activist group learns to work the FCC
Friday, December 10, 2004

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Complaints are the currency of the Federal Communications Commission, an agency that insists it does "not watch or listen to programs hoping to catch purveyors of dirty broadcasts." Instead, the FCC takes action against a television program only if it receives a complaint.

On its face, the policy makes sense: If the government patrolled television shows independently, it could be interpreted as government censorship.

But what if there were an independent group that aggressively monitored television with an eye toward catching "dirty" broadcasts? And what if that group conducted an organized campaign to complain to the FCC at the slightest hint of indecency? Would the complaint policy still make sense?

A recent estimate from the FCC's Enforcement Bureau suggests that is exactly what's going on: 99.8 percent of the 240,000 complaints in 2003 were filed by the Parents Television Council, a group founded specifically to restore television to being a socially responsible medium. According to the PTC's Web site, the group maintains a database of more than 89,000 hours of television. When it finds suggestive content on television shows, the PTC issues e-mail alerts and enables users to submit complaints directly from its Web site.

Some of those form-letter complaints were likely submitted against the Fox show "Married by America," which drew a fine of $1.2 million in October for showing partially blurred strippers. Although the FCC said at the time that there were 159 complaints against the show, it now says that only 23 were from different people. According to Fox Broadcasting, all but four were identical and only one person mentioned actually watching the show.

Certainly, much of what is shown on TV is tawdry and of debatable taste. But there has to be a better system to actually measure public intolerance. Otherwise, a whole nation of TV viewers will be forced to ride on the PTC's morality train.

99.8 percent of the 240,000 complaints in 2003 were filed by the Parents Television Council