The summer of '09 was a slow time for indecency and
obscenity complaints at the FCC, according to its most recent quarterly accounting.
For the third quarter--July, August and September--the FCC
received 1,827 complaints, down dramatically from the 12,940 it received in the
previous three months.
The FCC has well over a million such complaints in the
pipeline dating back several years. Its indecency enforcement regime has been
in legal limbo as federal courts continue to sort out various challenges to its
content-control powers, although it has begun sending out letters of inquiries
on some of those complaints, according to attorneys whose clients have received
the letters.
In the second quarter, indecency complaints were more than
two thirds of the 17,047 total radio and TV-related complaints to the FCC,
while they were less than a third of the 6,700 radio and TV complaints
registered in the third quarter.
Other such complaints were about marketing and advertising,
general programming criticisms and DTV issues.
