NBC has taken aim at the Federal Communications Commission's "indecency" enforcement powers, arguing that the a combination of the V-chip and ratings system is a more narrowly tailored means of giving
parents control over content than the FCC's current daytime ban. When the network broke with its long policy of not using TV ratings descriptors, it was viewed as a major step toward a challenge of
FCC indecency enforcement regulation, with the networks able to make the argument that since they were all using the ratings system and all new TVs had to have a v-chip, the FCC's policy was too
broad. In a case several years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that an effective program-blocking mechanism was the least restrictive means to protect kids from cable content. NBC also argues that
regulators exceeded their authority by extending its profanity rules to cover fleeting expletives, or even non-fleeting ones that do not have a religious component. Those are several arguments the
network made in a brief to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. That court is hearing a challenge by the networks--except ABC--to the FCC's four profanity rulings last March.
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