This article from NYTimes.com
has been sent to you by mentalchatter@sympatico.ca.
hey AJ'ers,
Thought some of you would be interested in this bit of follow-up info. Go Sarah!
-db-
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Songwriter Sues F.C.C. Over Radio Sanctions
January 30, 2002
By NEIL STRAUSS
In an unusual counteroffensive, a New York poet and
performance artist filed suit yesterday against the Federal
Communications Commission, charging that it violated her
First Amendment rights when it fined a radio station for
playing a spoken-word song by her with vivid sexual
imagery.
The artist, Sarah Jones, asked for a judgment in federal
district court in Manhattan that the 1999 song, "Your
Revolution," is not indecent as the agency found; for an
injunction preventing the commission from enforcing the
$7,000 fine against KBOO-FM, a listener-supported station
in Portland, Ore.; and for a finding that the commission's
ruling violated her free-speech rights.
Lawyers who specialize in First Amendment cases said it was
extremely rare for an artist to intervene legally in a case
of this sort, which usually pits the F.C.C. against the
station it has sanctioned. The suit also represents a
further development in a debate about whether the
commission is too strict or too lax in policing the
airwaves.
John Winston, the assistant bureau chief for enforcement at
the F.C.C., declined to comment on the Jones case.
The dispute began in October 1999 when a listener was
offended by the song during a music show called "Soundbox"
and complained to the commission. In May, the F.C.C. fined
the station for broadcasting "unmistakable patently
offensive sexual references" that "appear designed to
pander and shock."
The commission prohibits certain things from being
broadcast when children might be listening: any of seven
objectionable words or material that it deems patently
offensive as measured by contemporary community standards,
especially references to "sexual or excretory activities
and organs."
Ms. Jones said she was surprised that her song was declared
offensive because she wrote it as an attack on the
degradation of women in mainstream hip-hop. "My name was
hanging in the air with `indecent' attached to it in this
really problematic way, especially since my work is
concerned with social justice and feminist issues," she
said yesterday. "That it should be associated with sexual
indecency and intending to shock is not something that I
can just let sit there, partly in light of the fact that
other material is played ad infinitum on mainstream radio
airwaves that's really problematic. I'm not one for
censorship, but let's not use a double standard that
victimizes certain voices."
While the song does not contain any of the seven
objectionable words flagged by the F.C.C., it does make
explicit sexual references, which paraphrase lyrics from
rap songs to denounce them as misogynist and shallow.
In July KBOO contested the fine, but no action has been
taken, said Lisa E. Davis, a partner at Frankfurt Garbus
Kurnit Klein & Selz, the law firm representing Ms. Jones.
The People for the American Way Foundation, a liberal
organization, is working on Ms. Jones's case. "I think it's
very clear that the song is not indecent, even under the
F.C.C. criteria," said Elliot Mincberg, a vice president
and legal director at the foundation.
In recent years the F.C.C. has been buffeted by criticism
from within and without, from the left and the right. Some
critics charge that it is cracking down too hard on radio,
others that it is too lenient. Some say the commission's
rules on documenting violations are too strict; others say
that its enforcement rules are inconsistent. And still
others say its decision- making process on complaints and
appeals is too slow.
During the last year, in particular, the commission has
been in the spotlight. Complaints against two morning show
hosts for sexually explicit banter - one on WKQX-FM in
Chicago, the other on WDGC-FM in Durham, N.C. - were
dismissed last year because of a lack of documentation.
Earlier this month the commission reversed its decision to
fine KKMG-FM in Colorado Springs, for playing the Eminem
single "The Real Slim Shady" in a version that already had
words edited out for radio broadcast.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/30/arts/30STAT.html?ex=1013413593&ei=1&en=8efa79c27fff3b0d
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