CBS to FCC: "It May Be Time to Rethink Indecency"

Saying that the Federal Communications Commission was trying to play program director and chief editor for TV stations and doing a bad job of it at that, CBS told the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that the commission’s indecency finding against ABC's NYPD Blue should be thrown out.
ABC and its affiliates are in court fighting a $1 million-plus indecency fine against a 2003 airing of the show. CBS filed its brief separately but joined Fox and NBC in backing ABC's decision to air bare buttocks -- in this instance, actress Charlotte Ross' -- in a "nonsexual and nonexcretory context" in an award-winning series.
CBS pointed out that the bare behind came in a scene that was "an integral part of the program's serious story line, was preceded by parental warnings and appropriate ratings, was aired in the final hour of primetime at 10 p.m. Eastern and generated no complaints from the public other than cookie-cutter submissions from nonviewers of the show orchestrated by activist groups."

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