The Chicago Tribune:

Television outlets that were fined for broadcasting bare butts and F-bombs got some relief from the U.S. Supreme Courton Thursday, but the ruling didn’t settle the question of whether the Federal Communications Commission’s indecency policy violates the First Amendment. …

The Supreme Court said an FCC crackdown on content it deemed indecent was poorly explained and arbitrarily enforced: A blurted obscenity by Cher during the 2002 Billboard Music Awards drew a violation, for example, but prolific cursing by soldiers in “Saving Private Ryan” did not. As Justice Elena Kagan noted during case arguments in January, “It’s like nobody can use dirty words or nudity except for Steven Spielberg.”

The FCC had long tolerated isolated bursts of profanity on the perfectly reasonable assumption that we’re all exposed to worse during, for example, our daily commute. But in the mid-2000s, the FCC began to hold stations responsible for airing “fleeting expletives” after on-air outbursts from Cher, actress Nicole Richie and U2 frontman Bono. ABC was cited for giving viewers an eyeful of Charlotte Ross‘ bare behind during an episode of “NYPD Blue.” And who can forget Janet Jackson‘s famous wardrobe malfunction during halftime of the 2004 Super Bowl?

The Supremes said broadcasters were deprived of due process because the FCC didn’t give fair notice of its policy change. That let ABC and Fox off the hook but also left the agency’s rules in place. …

Broadcasters had argued that the rules are “hopelessly outdated and fundamentally unfair.” They’re right.

The rules apply to only the handful of broadcast stations regulated by the FCC, not to hundreds and hundreds of cable, satellite and Internet stations. (Right here we need to note thatTribune Co.,the Chicago Tribune’scorporate parent, operates 23 TV stations in large markets nationwide.)

The FCC’s rules accomplish little. Scrubbed of what FCC lawyers delicately described as “the S-word and the F-word,” the airwaves still are loaded with racy content. Just watch thetalk shows, the nightly news, the Viagra ads. …

Sooner or later, we expect the Supreme Court will have to reconcile the FCC’s policy against the First Amendment, though by the time it happens it likely will be over something far racier than seven seconds of butt cheeks on “NYPD Blue.” In the meantime, the FCC should stop trying to micromanage its slice of the broadcast business. Consumers who want to avoid profanity on television can do it just fine with the remote.