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 STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  MICHAEL  J.  COPPS 
 APPROVING  IN  PART,  DISSENTING  IN  PART 
 Re:  Complaints  Against  Various  Broadcast  Licensees  Regarding  Their  Airing  of  the  “Golden  Globe  Awards,”  Memorandum  Opinion  and  Order 


 I  support  the  decision  to  find  the  utterance  of  the  f-  word  on  NBC’s  broadcast  of  the  “Golden  Globe  Awards”  to  be  both  indecent  and  profane.  I  found  ludicrous  the  Enforcement 
 Bureau’s  decision  that  a  word  that  might  otherwise  be  indecent  is  not  indecent  or  profane  merely  because  it  is  used  as  an  adjective  or  expletive.  The  f-  word  clearly  meets  the  definition  of 
 indecency  whether  used  as  an  adjective,  expletive,  “intensifier”  (as  NBC  curiously  argues  here),  or  any  other  part  of  speech. 


 I  do  not  agree  with  all  aspects  of  the  majority’s  analysis.  While  I  am  pleased  that  the  majority  recognizes  that  profanity  is  not  limited  to  blasphemy,  I  disagree  that  we  need  to  give 
 notice  before  we  apply  the  law  of  the  land.  The  better  argument  is  that  the  statute  itself  gives  due  notice.  Along  these  same  lines,  I  disagreed  last  year  when  a  majority  at  the  Commission  similarly 
 found  that  notice  was  required  prior  to  sending  an  indecency  case  to  a  hearing  for  license  revocation,  notwithstanding  that  the  statute  expressly  provides  for  such  an  action.  In  past  cases, 
 when  there  have  been  truly  outrageous  violations  or  repeat  offenses,  I  have  sought  to  have  cases  sent  to  hearings  to  determine  if  the  license  should  be  revoked.  This  may  not  be  a  case  where  a 
 revocation  of  license  is  in  order.  But  neither  is  it  a  case  that  warrants  no  penalty  at  all.  I  believe  the  Commission  would  be  fully  within  its  rights  to  impose  a  fine  for  this  particular  instance  of 
 profanity  and  indecency.  We  send  entirely  the  wrong  signal  by  failing  to  do  so. 
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