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Contact: Cindy Roberts (662) 844-5036 ext. 227
For Immediate Release:  1/19/2005

Over 70,000 indecency complaints filed after CBS and FCC cut deal

“The FCC can not continue wiping the slate clean of thousands of complaints after the networks pay some pocket change, or there will never be any accountability.” – Tim Wildmon, President of the American Family Association

(Tupelo, MS) - Thousands of Americans are outraged with CBS’s airing of “Without A Trace” and the Federal Communication Commission for cutting a deal with CBS’s parent company Viacom.

In November 2004, the FCC cut a deal with Viacom allowing it to pay $3.5 million in exchange for dropping thousands of CBS’s indecency complaints filed by taxpaying consumers.

According to Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, AFA supporters have filed over 70,000 indecency complaints concerning CBS’s “Without A Trace” that shows a graphic and extended teen-age orgy scene and was aired December 31, 2004, right after Viacom’s deal with the FCC. AFA supporters also requested the FCC to stop cutting deals with broadcasters of indecent material.

Commissioner Michael Copps disagreed with the November deal the FCC cut with Viacom. Copps wrote, “The totality of a broadcasters’ record is pertinent and should be considered when licenses are renewed. Today’s decision takes an entire part of the record off the table.”

“There should be no deal-making over legitimate formal complaints that taxpaying Americans took the time to register,” Wildmon said. “Congress made the rules and the FCC’s job is to enforce the rules as opposed to changing them.”

“The FCC has sold out the American public,” Wildmon said. “The FCC can not continue wiping the record clean of thousands of complaints after the networks pay some pocket change, or there will never be any accountability.”

American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over two million online supporters.

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