Source : Toronto Star

Former U.S. Marine Tony Perkins calls Saving Private Ryan one of his favourite movies. The Academy Award-winning film shows the carnage of war as it follows a squad of soldiers as they hit Omaha Beach, struggle to avoid being cut to ribbons by German guns, then scour France for a lost comrade.

Yet when ABC showed Saving Private Ryan during prime time recently, Perkins complained that the U.S. broadcaster crossed a line because the movie "contained more than 20 mentions of the 'F' word and nearly as many mentions of the 'S' word."

So days after ABC aired the film, Perkins, president of the right-leaning Washington-based Family Research Council, asked his 400,000 members to e-mail Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Powell and demand the regulator crack down on ABC and fine the network.

For Perkins and many other U.S. conservatives, George W. Bush's victory in the Nov. 2 election has presented them with a unique opportunity - and they're seizing it with both hands. They're taking the fight for conservative values to the broadcast battlefront. And they intend to exert their influence on America's airwaves as never before.

It's that determination that promises to make Michael Powell, son of outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, a central figure in the battle over the future of radio and TV programming.

And as conservatives pepper the FCC with complaints, Powell already appears to have flipped. A self-described "avid moderate," Powell went out of his way to praise the protection of free speech when he was first named to the FCC in 1997. But today he seems committed to clean up content.

"The U.S. Constitution is generous in its protection of free expression, but it is not a licence to thrill," Powell said in October. "'Anything goes,' is not an acceptable mantra."

According to exit polls following the U.S. election, morality and family values remain the single most important issue for the American public, ahead even of worries about terrorism or the economy. That fervour about values has made broadcasting a key target.

And technology has made it easier than ever for organizations like the Family Research Council to deliver their message. Nowadays, special interest groups not only provide their members with phone numbers and email addresses for Washington politicians, they also offer template complaint letters. Filing letters of grievance is as quick as a few keystrokes.

"Americans are at a boiling point - and we're finally seeing a push-back," Perkins said in an interview.

In 2004, the FCC received 1.1 million indecency-related complaints, a record, up from 111 in 2000, according to a spokesperson for the regulator. Fines for profanity and indecency-related infractions last year totalled $7.9 million (U.S.). In 2000, the year before Powell became chairman of the regulator, similar fines totalled only $48,000.

For Perkins and his fellow red-culture lieutenants, the mission is far from over. Congress believes in their cause and several recently appointed FCC commissioners seem even more impassioned about morality than Powell.

"The rest of the world must be mystified by what's happening," says Robert Thompson, founding director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University.

"This whole traditional values movement translates to people saying that things should be the way they were before the 1960s," Thompson notes, "before birth control or the women's movement or the embarrassment of Watergate or Vietnam."

Powell's turnabout seems to have been signalled in the spring of 2003 after the U.S. Congress criticized the way the FCC handled a controversy that ensnared broadcaster NBC.

When Irish rock star Bono blurted out an expletive during the broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards, FCC staff announced the U2 lead singer hadn't violated indecency rules because Bono had used the 'F' word as an adjective, not as a noun. But later the commission formally ruled it did contravene guidelines - though it did not fine NBC.

"It was such a drastic change of course," said David Greene, executive director of the non-profit First Amendment Project in Oakland, Calif., adding the ruling "could be a disincentive to networks to have live broadcasts at all."

The Bono imbroglio would serve as an FCC primer.

In February 2003, during the Super Bowl's half-time show with CBS cameras rolling, singers Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake executed their now famous "wardrobe malfunction," exposing Jackson's breast. CBS officials said they were shocked. Even so, the FCC would later propose fining the broadcaster $550,000 for the miscue.

Just days after more than 60 ABC affiliates refused to carry the uncut broadcast of Saving Private Ryan, the Walt Disney Co.-owned network aired a promotion to bolster interest in its drama Desperate Housewives. ABC opened its Monday Night Football telecast on Nov. 15 with a vignette in a locker-room featuring Housewives star Nicollette Sheridan, wearing just a towel, trying to seduce Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens.

When the towel dropped, FCC switchboards lit up. The FCC said it received more than 50,000 complaints.

When Powell joined the FCC, he curried favour with liberals by pledging to uphold the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.

But by the time of ABC's Desperate Housewives promotion, Powell was openly critical of what he called TV's "increasing coarseness."

"I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," said Powell.

Backed by Congress and emboldened by the growing influence of conservative voters, Powell is now comfortable levying record-high fines for indecency. Critics charge he has turned out to be a ham-handed enforcer, adding that some of the FCC's high-profile rulings are inconsistent and unfair.

And some remain skeptical about the true number of complaints the FCC is receiving over indecency and profanity.

Former TV Guide critic turned blogger Jeff Jarvis filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the actual viewer complaints after the FCC threatened to hit the Fox Network with a record $1.2 million fine for airing partially blurred strippers on a now-cancelled reality show.

The FCC reported there were 159 complaints, but documents obtained by Jarvis showed the true figure to be 90. Those were written by just 23 people and of those 23, 21 of their letters were identical to a form letter proffered by the Parents' Television Council.

© The Toronto Star