FCC fines ruffle even 'Masterpiece Theatre'
As Congress considers boosting indecency fines to as much as $500,000, even high-brow public TV treads warily.
A day before his documentary about a gritty Puerto Rican poet aired across the country, director Jonathan Robinson received a courtesy call with some bad news: His film would be sanitized for PBS's protection.
Network officials had decided to audibly bleep at least a dozen expletives in the April 6 broadcast of "Every Child Is a Poet: The Life & Work of Piri Thomas." Suddenly, parts of Mr. Robinson's serious drama sounded like a toddler playing with a touch-tone phone.
To Robinson, the transformation of his documentary is an ironic twist. Mr. Thomas's books, including the well-known "Down These Mean Streets," had been censored three decades ago for crude language. "It was like history repeating itself all over again," the director said.
Since Janet Jackson's revealing Super Bowl halftime show, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been clamping down on any broadcast material that could be considered offensive. From talk-radio to "Masterpiece Theatre," broadcasters are watching their backs as the FCC hammers out rules and regulations and Congress considers boosting maximum individual fines to $500,000.
For commercial television, which rakes in millions of dollars in ad sales, fines would almost be a slap on the wrist. For some public broadcasters who spend a significant amount of money on fundraising alone, however, one fine could be enough to pull the plug for good. As a result, public broadcasters nationwide are reluctantly entering a new era of self-censorship.
"Many public television stations and public radio stations have chosen to be much more conservative than they would have been in the past," says Margaret Miller, a Washington attorney who represents public broadcasters.
Most programming on public stations, of course, is as innocuous as "Sesame Street." But language often becomes explicit during TV documentaries and edgy radio shows. Bawdy British comedies, a staple on public television, are now being considered "problematic."
Explicit language is being routinely exorcised from documentaries, news reports, and respected shows like "Masterpiece Theatre." Last week, actor Richard Dreyfuss bitterly complained to a meeting of TV critics that vulgar words will be bleeped from a PBS drama, "Top Cop," that will star him in the fall.
But station officials say they simply can't afford the risk of a protracted court case or huge obscenity fine.
In San Diego, for example, TV station KPBS edited out obscenities from "The Cotton Club," a respected 1984 film by Francis Ford Coppola. "I know that doesn't sound very courageous," says station manager Doug Myrland, "but I have to think about our members' money."
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