Posted by FCC Proposes $1.4 Million Fine for Woman’s ‘Nude Buttocks’ on NYPD Blue
The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue.
The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted “multiple, close-up views” of the woman’s “nude buttocks” according to an agency order issued late Friday.
ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co. The fines were issued against 52 stations either owned by or affiliated with the network.
FCC’s definition of indecent content requires that the broadcast “depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities” in a “patently offensive way” and is aired between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The agency said the show was indecent because “it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs — specifically an adult woman’s buttocks.”
The agency rejected the network’s argument that “the buttocks are not a sexual organ.”
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is an independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was released into select theatres on September 1, 2006. The Independent Film Channel, the film’s producer, aired the film later that autumn.
The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for “some graphic sexual content”: scenes that illustrated the content a film could include to garner an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. The new version of the film is not rated.
The film discusses disparities the filmmaker sees in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between gay and straight sexual situations, and between violence and sexual content.
