FCC Rule Struck

Every now and again a court stands up to our out of control federal government.  Such was the case when a three judge panel in New York recently rapped the knuckles of the FCC over their rule regarding expletives uttered on live broadcasts off the cuff.  The so-called “unscripted” expletives have long been a source of contention for people who think that the federal government has somewhere, but they are not quite sure where, in the Constitution the power to regulate speech.

In fact, despite a clear reprimand against such things in the First Amendment the government has done it anyway.  Their tactic has been a sneaky one whereby Congress, who is the sole body entrusted with making federal law and the body specifically prohibited from violating the free speech of citizens through acts of law, abdicated their ability to make law on certain matters to other organizations like the FCC.  Thus, the theory has gone, because the FCC is not Congress that the FCC can do whatever they want.  It doesn’t really work though because the FCC was created by Congress and thus all acts of the FCC are de facto acts of Congress and thus all unconstitutional acts by the FCC are just as unconstitutional as they would be if Congress passed them directly.

I know, there are a lot of you out there that are offended by certain words.  These words grate at you because, well, you are offended by them.  Other words that mean the same thing can be used but not these, hideous (in your own mind) words.  It is a silly claim and one in which true conservatives can easily weed out false conservatives.

The crack down by the FCC for unscripted expletives came under former President Bush who repeatedly showed people why Republicans, while 100 times better than your typical Democrat, must be watched like hawks to make sure they are not acting like little tyrants.  Now it has been temporarily put on hold

However, count on this heading to the Supreme Court where it is anyone’s guess as to whether or not the conservative block will hang together and stop liberal thinking and a violation of the first amendment to stand.  Hopefully they will uphold this ruling.  And then people who get offended so easily over words will have to find something else to get mindlessly upset about.

You don’t like what is said on a radio or television station?  Change to another.  And if individual stations want to self sensor, that is ok too.  They are not Congress and they can do it.  That is liberty.