• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 15, 2010

Decency and indecency are back in the courts -- and onscreen in late night.

 

Judges from a Federal Appeals Court are on the verge of throwing out those flimsy Federal Communication Commission rules that would fine networks for the slightest of indecent infractions.

But there's more on the profanity front. Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, and David Letterman are revealing much of the profane when bashing NBC.

It's horrible that anyone would stoop so low to beat up anyone that makes billions -- as they are making millions themselves. Why, it almost makes me watch Current TV.

But, hey, it's the First Amendment right of free speech - as well as great snarky entertainment. No doubt if Leno, O'Brien, and Letterman really went at it, they would do their club "blue" acts. (Take care of your waiters/waitresses on your way out!)

Clubs and late-night TV aren't the place for kids. Even then, the Federal appeals court doesn't like what the Federal Communications Commission is doing -- overall. 

Responding to FCC attorney Jacob Lewis' comment that the agency's policy was designed to protect children, Judge Pierre Leval said:  "What are you protecting children from?"

Then another judge questioned how children can distinguish between entertainment programming and news coverage. On the latter, the FCC allows broadcasters the use of sexual or profane words.

The answer is, kids can't tell the difference. TV news runs all day long before the 8 p.m. family hour. The FCC also doesn't cover cable, the Internet, or theatrical movies -- or whether I can swear when a car cuts me off when I'm riding my bike.  

Another judge, Rosemary Pooler, questioned whether TV should just end live broadcasts. "I guess they don't use those words [emphasis added] in small towns," she said in a mocking tone, according to one news story.

Judge Leval noted sex and profanity has been around in entertainment for hundreds of years. He wondered whether "Hamlet" - in which Hamlet's mother married Hamlet's uncle soon after Hamlet's father's demise -- could be performed on TV.

Well, surely not in the 8 p.m. hour -- unless someone deemed it "educational."

Back to late night: Whatever viewers don't know about the business of late-night television -- in terms of million dollar penalties, back-biting among personalities, and inside network operations -- they are getting a full primer now.

But I'd go deeper.

Give companies the right to billions of profits in exchange for some public news and emergency information in case of an earthquake, fire, flood, or a traffic jam on the 405?

Please. Just make them cable networks already and end the pretense.

To some, the amount of money all TV participants make -- on-air talent and big-time TV executives -- is the real profanity.

What is the FCC doing about that vulgarity?