The problem that the adult industry constantly faces, the lack of definition in obscenity laws, is the same problem those in media and entertainment are facing in light of the recent FCC crackdown, according to Jeffrey Douglas, chairman of the Free Speech Coalition.
Douglas suggested that the current concept of “community standards” made it virtually impossible to tell what is or is not obscene as part of a panel discussing the recent FCC crackdown at the Beverly Bar Association yesterday. The panel was titled “The New Censorship: The FCC, The Justice Department and You.”
Douglas participated in the panel discussion via telephone, noting that it was difficult to speak to 125 people you couldn't see.
According the Hollywood Reporter, Parents Television Council executive director Tim Winter agreed with Douglas that the rules needed to be clarified. He also suggested that it would help if the FCC would enforce their rules more often.
Another panelist, Darlene Lieblich, the vice-president of standards and practices for Fox Cable Networks, said that cable companies were now afraid that they might soon be regulated.
The commentator who was recently fired from KCRW for saying “fuck” in a segment, Sandra Tsing Loh, was also on the panel. She spoke of the fear that is pervading the industry, specifically at her former employer's station, as pressure is mounting on the FCC to begin a crackdown in earnest - and what that might mean for civil liberties.
In Loh's case, the use of the word "fuck" was an accident. Her engineer was instructed to beep the word out of the pre-recorded segment, but forgot to do so. Loh was offered her job back at the National Public Radio affiliiate based in Santa Monica, but turned it down.
First Amendment attorney Stephen Rohde, a past president of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU, was on the panel as well.
The panel was moderated by Kenneth D. Freundlich, an entertainment lawyer with the firm Schleimer & Freundlich, LLP.
