Yesterday, Gene Jockey let the Ars Soap Box know about a report that I think many of you will find interesting. You may recall that the past few years have been banner years for the FCC, at least in terms of censorship, imposing fines, and warning networks about their proposed television content. You may have also heard that in recent years complaints about TV have gone through the roof, from a mere 350 complaints in 2000 to a whopping 240,000 in 2003, and potentially even more this year. It has long been through that the advent of reality TV and the onset of "loose morals" in TV have pushed conservatives over the edge. And you know what, it's true. The problem is that, unfortunately, these massive numbers all boil down to one politically motivated group with an axe to grind. Hold on to your hat, folks.

According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003?99.8 percent?were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group. This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified. Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints?aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson ?wardrobe malfunction? during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS? were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1.

The FCC has insisted that the quantity of reports is not weighed when addressing complaints, but this is somewhat contradicted by the fact that the FCC only responds to complaints, as they do not actively monitor what's on TV. As such, the quantity of reports is key, because things are being reported that normally were not, and that puts the FCC on the trail of investigation.

Of course, the FCC still argues that if there has been no foul, then there's nothing to worry about. The problem, of course, is that the the number of complaints has been used to calculate and justify fines for borderline issues, as with Fox's doomed (and idiotic) Married by America.

For example, the agency on Oct. 12, in proposing fines of nearly $1.2 million against Fox Broadcasting and its affiliates, said it received 159 complaints against Married by America, which featured strippers partly obscured by pixilation. But when asked, the FCC?s Enforcement Bureau said it could find only 90 complaints from 23 individuals... And Fox, in a filing last Friday, told the FCC that it should rescind the proposed fines, in part because the low number of complaints fell far short of indicating that community standards had been violated. ?All but four of the complaints were identical?and only one complainant professed even to have watched the program,? Fox said.

So, the number clearly does matter, because it is used a as justification for fines, they are used to determine which issues to pursue, and they are centrally coordinated to the extent that many of the complainants have not actually even viewed the material in question.

What's clear is that the FCC needs to account for this centrally organized spamming of complaints. The Parents Television Council takes as one of its aims the generation of fake complaints, and this must be addressed. For example, the PTC maintains a list of the worst shows on TV each week, replete with reports on the shows' content that's hardly objective. Is it a surprise that people then complain about a show they've never even watched? The FCC has responded, in part, by counting identical complaints as just one set of complaints. This doesn't make make the activists happy, however.

The PTC today called for a Congressional investigation of the FCC because they, oh the horror!, don't accept automatically generated spam complaints as totally legit, trustworthy complaints.

"We are calling for a Congressional investigation of the FCC over its accounting practices. While we're pleased that the FCC has calculated that PTC members have filed an overwhelming majority of indecency complaints in the last two years, the FCC's count is utterly deceptive," said L. Brent Bozell, president of the PTC.

The deception they charge, in part, is relating to the FCC's claim that the majority of these complaints come from the PTC rather than other "family-oriented" groups. They would like more groups to get credit also, which I suppose qualifies as deception only if you want to avoid the appearance of not actually representing grassroots efforts.