The Wrap Quotes Tom Davidson on FCC Indecency Rules

Akin Gump partner Tom Davidson, who leads the firm’s communication and information technology practice, was quoted by The Wrap in its article “FCC at Crossroads on Indecency Rules” on the topic of the Federal Communications Commission’s guidance on what constitutes indecency.

Regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 holding in FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., that, because the FCC failed to give the networks “fair notice prior to the broadcasts in question that fleeting expletives and mo­mentary nudity could be found actionably indecent, the Commission’s standards as applied to these broadcasts were vague.” Davidson said, “The court made it clear that the FCC has to provide adequate notice of what is indecent before it enforces any policy and that’s a slippery slope. That’s hard to articulate in a way that will have a wide-ranging impact on broadcasters unless the FCC wants to come up with dictionary of indecent words a la George Carlin.”