Mr. Robert Wright Dear Mr. Wright: As you are aware, during NBC's live broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards on January 19, 2003, the musical performer Bono, while accepting an award, uttered the phrase "this is really, really f**king brilliant." Bono's statement was transmitted unedited to NBC owned and affiliated stations in the Eastern and Central time zones and then broadcast to millions of homes. This broadcast occurred during a viewing period in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has determined that children are likely to be watching television. Since that time, the FCC has been asked to determine whether the broadcast was indecent, as a matter of law, and the FCC has concluded that it was not. However, in my mind, whether Bono's remarks fall within the FCC's narrow reading of the definition of indecency is not the core issue. A more important question is why the NBC network permitted such objectionable language to be broadcast to millions of American homes. Along these lines I would appreciate answers to the following questions:
As you may be aware, the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet plans to conduct a hearing on the subject of broadcast indecency tomorrow, January 28, 2004. I would appreciate if you could respond to this letter on or before Tuesday, February 3, 2004, and I will ask that your answers be included in the hearing record. If you have any questions, please contact me, or have your staff contact Gregg Rothschild, Minority Counsel, at 202-226-3400. I hope you agree that it is wholly unacceptable for the NBC network to broadcast objectionable language as it did last January, and that you will ensure that what happened during the Golden Globe Awards will never happen again on your network. Sincerely,
cc: The Honorable W.
J. "Billy" Tauzin, Chairman
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