CSI Target of 'Noncomplaint' Campaign

Speakspeak.org -- a Web site launched one month ago to fight back against the Federal Communications Commission's indecency crackdown -- has set up an online form on its opening page for surfers to submit a letter of "noncomplaint" to the commission to counter the Parents Television Council's complaint against CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

PTC took issue with a Feb. 17 episode of the crime scene investigation drama in which an obese man with an infantilism fetish flings himself to his death wearing only a diaper.

The group has a form letter ready to e-mail to the FCC saying that the sender did not find the show offensive and that it was a work of fiction with artistic merit, "not pornography.

"Our members feel that, while not every program is appropriate for every age group, neither is it appropriate for a small-but-active segment of the population to control the airwaves," site founder Amanda Toering told B&C. "Because their mobilization has led to fear and self-censorship at the broadcast networks, the PTC has become the nation's de facto censorship board."

The site is not just hammering on the commission, however.

It also features a form letter praising the commission for denying a variety of complaints in the past few weeks, though it had not yet noted the complaints against Will & Grace, Private Ryan and Arrested Development denied Monday.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.