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Dec 12, 2003  •  Post A Comment

Focus on the Family Wants FCC to Crack Down on Indecency

Focus on the Family, a morality group, announced Friday the launch of a public relations campaign aimed at forcing the Federal Communications Commission to crack down on broadcast indecency. In a statement, Tom Minnery, the group’s VP of public policy, said he is particularly concerned that Nicole Richie, a star of Fox’s “The Simple Life,” said “cows — t” and “f — -ing” on Fox’s Dec. 10 broadcast of the “Billboard Music Awards,” and that the words were aired live in most of the country’s time zones but bleeped for West Coast feeds.

“Each year, TV broadcasters grow bolder and bolder, but the FCC acts as if nothing is happening,” Mr. Minnery said. In October, Mr. Minnery said the FCC had ruled that the use of the “f-word” by rock star Bono during another awards program had not run afoul of the agency’s indecency prohibitions. “It’s clear that the FCC is completely ignoring its mandate to protect Americans from broadcast indecency,” Mr. Minnery said. “Congress needs to clean house at the FCC and remove those responsible immediately.” The FCC had no comment.

MPAA Filed Lawsuit Against Adelphia: Member companies of the Motion Picture Association of America’s filed a lawsuit in U.S Bankruptcy Court in New York Dec. 11 alleging that cable multiple system owner Adelphia Communications has failed to pay them copyright royalties for their programming. The MPAA companies are seeking payments of up to $150,000 for each of the dozens of copyright infringements alleged. An Adelphia spokesperson did not return telephone calls.

Fuse Partners With Rock Band Simple Plan: Fuse, Rainbow Media’s cable music channel, will be the exclusive media partner for the rock band Simple Plan’s U.S. tour. The band announced the tour and sponsorship live on Fuse’s signature daily show “IMX: Interactive Music Exchange.” The tour will be aggressively promoted by Fuse with on-air and online efforts and supported by local and national print advertising, radio and television spots. It will also include customized “Fuse Presents” on-air spots. The band will be featured in exclusive weekly tour segments on “IMX” and each week for a month viewers will have a chance to win a piece of band equipment from Simple Plan’s “Perfect” video.

HBO to Renew ‘Carnivale’: HBO is expected to announce the renewal of its series “Carnivale” on Monday. The premium channel has order 13 new episodes. The series left some viewers confused but drew ratings comparable with the more critically acclaimed “The Wire.” HBO last month decided not to renew its other new series, “K Street.”