ABSTRACT
As the 1990s brought the Congress face-to-face with a marketplace oriented overhaul of sixty-year-old telecommunications regulations, some members continued to call for content rules that would regulate indecency and violence. At the same time in the courts, existing broadcast indecency rules were upheld. Broadcast regulation in the United States is a creature of the national political environment. Broadcasters continue to maintain a strong position in terms of a protective attitude on the part of the FCC. The American law of broadcast indecency was cast by the US Supreme Court in the 1970s Pacifica ruling. Broadcast indecency can be placed within the larger context of the public’s relationship with the instruments of mass communication.
