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Radio News: Colbert joke prompts FCC 'investigation'

May 07, 2017 11:42 pm
The Hill reported last week that the Federal Communications Commission is launching an investigation into late night talk show host Stephen Colbert’s joke about President Trump and a certain body part of Russian President Vladimir Putin. That's a bit of an exxageration -- the FCC investigates anytime anyone complains about anything on the nation's airwaves. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to “take the appropriate action” in an interview on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT May 4. “We are going to take the facts that we find and we are going to apply the law as it’s been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we’ll take the appropriate action,” the FCC commissioner said on the air. But, again, that comment could apply to any complaint the FCC receives. Colbert's comment is allowed to be "indecent" after 10 p.m. His joke will only garner a fine if it is deemed "obscene." To be obscene, according to the Supreme Court, “It must appeal to an average person’s prurient interest; depict or describe sexual conduct in a ‘patently offensive’ way; and, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value,” it reads. By most readings, Colbert was making a political joke, reacting with anger to the way Trump treated CBS journalist John Dickerson. Plus, CBS, Colbert's network, bleeped his joke and blurred his mouth. “I don’t regret that,” he said. “[Trump], I believe, can take care of himself. I have jokes; he has the launch codes. So, it’s a fair fight."