Second Circuit Court v. FCC: Must-see TV

If you missed the live broadcast, or subsequent replays, of yesterday's fascinating and hilarious oral arguments in the Fox Television vs. Federal Communications Commission case being heard by New York's Second Circuit appeals court, do not despair. You, too, can enjoy the spectacle of an outmatched FCC lawyer perspiring his way through hostile questioning by two of the three judges.

Also, it's just fun to hear the F-word on basic cable. Even the judges, at times, seemed kind of giddy about it.

And if that's not enough, the Fox lawyer will actually make you feel good about Rupert Murdoch again.

Well, you've got at least one more chance to see it, when "America & the Courts" airs 7 p.m. ET this Saturday on Saturday. Or just watch it at the C-SPAN Web site.

Before you tune in, though, a couple of pointers:

• The judges and lawyers will refer continuously to Pacifica. They're not talking about something they heard on the radio. They're referring to this landmark 1978 ruling that got the FCC into the decency business in the first place.
• The bone of contention is "fleeting profanity" and whether the FCC has always reserved the right to impose sanctions on it ... or whether the Christian Right-appointed nannybots of the FCC suddenly and arbitrarily decided to start enforcing it after the Janet Jackson incident of 2004. Recall that the FCC actually went back two years and reversed its decision on the Bono expletive uttered at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards, suddenly finding it indecent. If the FCC's ruling is upheld, the networks envision a chilling effect whereby all live TV, even news events, will have to be delayed, simply because the government decides indecency matters so unpredictability that, like a drunken bully, it intimidates the networks into steering clear of all trouble, i.e., delaying everything. That, CBS top legal eagle Marty Franks told me last summer (MP3 audio), is simply unacceptable.