WFC FCC WTF

Hey, remember this?

Yes, of course, you remember that, it was hilarious when Chase “The Model” Utleybot 5000 said “World Fucking Champions” on live TV during the Phillies parade.

Somebody (Mike Klein, I guess) at the Inquirer got the good idea to FOIA the complaints to the FCC over the incident; the result is this article from the Inquirer that details the Utley complaints. Some of them are great.

“If they didn’t want such words to be broadcast, they should have aired [it] on a delay to catch any obscene language,” wrote a viewer from Philadelphia. “Pull their license to broadcast.”

The Phillies? All the local TV stations? Man, it aired on pretty much every channel, I really don’t want to have to watch just MyNetworkTV and the CW from now on, although I guess I would still get Gossip Girl.

Another viewer wrote: “He should be disciplined for his lack of respect towards his fans and in particular the children exposed to such vulgarity. . . . The broadcasters are not at fault. Chase Utley is.”

Disciplined… by whom? The Phillies, I guess. The Phillies could suspend him or fine him or something. Why this person would be writing to the FCC about this, I have no idea. But people do just complain about anything to anyone, as we’ve seen.

On a side note, can we look at what Chase Utley said to deflect questions about saying fuck on TV:

“I tell all kids not to use that word. If they’re 29 and they win the World Series, I think they can say that. But I definitely would say to all the kids out there, ‘Kids, it’s a bad word. Don’t say it. And I’m dead serious.’”

Ha ha, great, I mean it. I also love how dead serious he is — dead serious enough to say “And I’m dead serious.” Don’t say that word, kids. Take it from me, Chase Utley. Look at all the stupid mail I’ve had to deal with because I said it!

Another: “This was not a casual slip. This was an intentional misuse and abuse of the public airwaves. . . . How am I to explain such profanity to my child?”

I don’t know, maybe you can explain to your son or daughter that multimillionaires who have an uncanny ability to hit a ball (far!) with a bat sometimes say silly things, including saying the one word you’re not supposed to say on television on a live television broadcast. Ha ha, that was so awesome, I just remembered.

And another: “It was embarrassing that he was allowed to do that and if there are no ramifications I will be furious. Is there no platform that is sacred anymore?”

Yes, back when World Series victory parades were sacred. Like when the Philadelphia Athletics won the World Series in 1930, and they had the big parade, and second baseman “Camera Eye” Bishop gave a speech about how the A’s finished 102-52 but their Pythagorean record was only 93-61 and it just made him go, “World Bullfeather Champions.” Yes, I don’t know when things changed, but I bet it’s when they took the prayer out of World Series victory parades.

A radio listener who wrote, “I heard it here in Camden,” said: “That sort of language is no big deal… except that Howard Stern was driven off free radio by you, the FCC, because of content and bad words and the like. It’s only fair that broadcasters be held to the same standards… Fine KYW as much as you are legally allowed to fine them!… Lord knows the US Treasury could use the money.”

And, of course, one of the letters is from a Stern fan. I would wager good money the next sentence of this was, “Baba Booey, Baba Booey, Oh my, Richard Christie!”

FCC gets complaints on Utley’s on-air F-bomb [Inquirer]

Court In Phila. Tosses FCC Fine

Hooray! A heroic federal appeals court in Philadelphia — a judicial panel including Midge Rendell — this morning tossed out the hillion-jillion dollar fine the FCC levied on CBS for the Janet Jackson nipple-flashing incident in the 2004 Super Bowl.

Yes, apparently the court just got around to ruling on this event, which happened while I was still in college during the Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl. Jake Delhomme almost won Super Bowl MVP! Remember that? No, of course not, it was a Patriots Super Bowl win and you’ve hopefully put it out of your mind. Well, ha ha, now it’s back in. And so is this term: “Wardrobe malfunction.” It’s like the second half of senior year of college all over again. For me, at least.

“The Commission’s determination that CBS’ broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency’s departure from its prior policy,” the court found. “Its orders constituted the announcement of a policy change — that fleeting images would no longer be excluded from the scope of actionable indecency.” Umm, yes, whatever. The little plucky underdog, CBS, has successfully challenged its fine, which would have put it out of business if enacted.

Thanks for making us side with a giant media conglomerate, FCC.

Update: Here’s the ruling, in all its PDF-y glory.

Court tosses FCC `wardrobe malfunction’ fine [AP/Yahoo!]