The Decency Police

WATCHDOG: Bozell says his group has doubled its size in seven years

CHRIS MUELLER / REDUX

• Share

(8 of 8)

In indecency then, context is king. The PTC and the FCC say it was not indecent to air Saving Private Ryan on network TV--even though children might be watching during prime time--because of the context: soldiers swear in war. But of course, mobsters swear too. So could The Sopranos, just as critically praised, air on NBC? Can only good guys drop the F bomb? Indecency activists often cite the dictum of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart on obscenity: "I know it when I see it." But who knows indecency, and what do they see?

Consider the Feb. 17 episode of CSI. A form complaint letter available at the PTC website describes the episode, and it's icky stuff. The plot is about infantilism, a sexual fetish that involves adults wearing diapers and suckling at women's breasts. But the letter includes a curious argument: "COMPLAINANT urges the Commission to take notice of the high ratings for this episode of CSI ratings [sic]--reportedly viewed in 30.72 million households. Given its relatively early broadcast time [9 p.m. E.T.], it was without question viewed by millions of children."

That's one way of interpreting the number. Here's another: more than 30 million people watched the Feb. 17 episode of CSI, a show that has been on the air since 2000. It is probably the most gruesome, explicit drama on broadcast TV--and it is the single most popular. Did all those people tune in by accident? When the greatest plurality of viewers choose to watch a show they know to be graphic, can that show be beyond the pale? Or does COMPLAINANT simply not like where the pale is nowadays?

Robert Acosta, a police officer from Florida who worries about protecting his 6-year-old son from dirty TV, expresses that sentiment plaintively: "We have to go back to the '50s. The world is going crazy. The '50s was a great time." Perhaps decency advocates mourn not only the moral standards of the '50s but also the social consensus. Opinion about today's balkanized media is as fragmented as their audience. So who should set the standard? Parents of kids under 18? (They make up only 36% of U.S. households.) Senior citizens? That gay guy with the nipple ring?

In reality, they each do, in their own home. And it's likely to stay that way, however the current skirmishes play out, as media evolve and technology advances beyond attempts to corral it. Digital video recorders like TiVo, for instance, may make the concept of family hour moot, since their users can watch programs whenever they want. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt for decency proponents to recognize that different people define "values" differently, for media companies to take more seriously the genuine concerns of their customers who feel ambushed by their products and for all of us to recognize that making choices is a right for others and a responsibility for ourselves. There's a word for that kind of attitude, right? Oh, yeah: decent. --Reported by Timothy J. Burger, Massimo Calabresi and Eric Roston/Washington; Rita Healy/Denver; Jeanne McDowell/Los Angeles; Siobhan Morrissey/Miami; and Betsy Rubiner/Des Moines