Broadcasting ethics

Public indecency is a hotly debated issue these days ever since Janet Jackson revealed her left breast to almost all of America during Super Bowl XXXVIII’s halftime show. Although this act of public offensiveness may have made just about every American aware of this problem concerning television and radio, public indecency has been occurring for years. As far as I can remember, public indecency has existed on both radio and television. I grew up listening to Howard Stern, watching NYPD Blue, and watching Seinfeld. All of these shows till this day, I feel are great shows, and I could watch or listen to reruns over and over again without being bored.

All of these shows have a few things in common. They presented a lot of indecent content in their shows throughout their entire existences on air. Seinfeld constantly talked about sex; it was a central them in Seinfeld’s nine seasons. NYPD Blue was the first show that I can remember that displayed nudity on network television. The Howard Stern Show took Seinfeld’s sexual theme to a whole new level. Stern was not afraid to talk about anything; he constantly had women, sometimes porn stars, coming into the studio and getting naked. These shows all had sexual themes, but they had another thing in common as well. They were all extremely popular. Stern was so popular that his radio show received a simulcast on televisions’ E! Network.

There is no doubt that sex sells, which is one of the reasons that public indecency is such a highly debated issue. These shows are extremely popular, but is the content they show ethical? I say yes. I am on the side of the broadcasters. The American foundation is based on freedom of speech; you cannot fine a person for cursing on the street, so why is it fair to fine a broadcasting company for airing curse words. No one forces people to watch these shows in the first place; parents now have access to the technology to block any offensive programs from their children, and adults can easily turn off any program they find offensive.
The one thing that I wish that would change about the television broadcasting business is the way television is monitored. I feel that it is just plain dumb that network television monitored by the FCC, but cable television is not. We are no longer in a generation where network broadcasts dominate television anymore. Just about everyone that I know has cable. According to the Sourcebook for Teaching Science, almost 60% of American homes pay for cable television. Both cable and network television should have the same set of rules to follow. With the amount of viewers being just about even for the two, I believe that the same set of rules should apply for both network and cable broadcasting.