Censorship Bureau: Difference between revisions

* The American FCC, since it a) charges ''very'' large fines for violating the standards for programs in media it has authority over (mainly broadcast television and radio), and b) ''refuses to publish a list of those standards''; they can't file criminal charges. Those fines started at $27,500 and went up to $325,000 after Janet Jackson flashed the audience at the 2004 [[Super Bowl]]. The record is $1.2 million, for a [[FOX]] reality show called ''Married by America'' in which someone licked whipped cream off a woman's censored nipples. The penalty ($7000 per station) was reduced dramatically on appeal; the show didn't last past its first season.

** Much of the backlash against the 7 April 2003 "Married by America" episode (which ran at 9PM, outside [[watershed]]) was orchestrated by pressure groups, such as the Parents' Television Council, who directed hundreds of identical FCC complaints against(for everywhich individualthe FOXFCC stationpenalised (not just the network's owned-and-operated stations, but small-town affiliates owned independently). One low-power broadcaster, WNYF-CA (Fox 28) in Watertown NY (pop 27000), objected that not one of the complaints against that station were from any community where viewers could actually receive WNYF's then-minuscule signal; the FCC [https://transition.fcc.gov/eb/broadcast/Pleadings/United_Communications.pdf fined them anyway].