FCC Chairman: Boston Player's On-Air F-Bomb Fine by Me

Julius Genachowski stands with David Ortiz, Boston
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 22, 2013 12:17 PM CDT
FCC Chairman: Boston Player's On-Air F-Bomb Fine by Me
Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz speaks to the crowd before a baseball against the Kansas City Royals in Boston, Saturday, April 20, 2013.   (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

David Ortiz recently let an F-bomb fly during a live broadcast, but the Boston Red Sox player had kind of a good reason—and even the FCC chairman agrees. "This is our f---ing city and nobody’s going to dictate our freedom," Ortiz said Saturday before the Sox played the Kansas City Royals. But Julius Genachowski says the FCC will not be penalizing him, the Raw Story reports. "David Ortiz spoke from the heart at today’s Red Sox game," the chair wrote on the official FCC Twitter page. "I stand with Big Papi and the people of Boston."

The Raw Story points out that the FCC's stance on "fleeting expletives" has softened since 2010, when a court ruled that fining a "single, non-literal use of an expletive" during a live broadcast is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court weighed in last June, ruling that such expletives can't be penalized as indecent because the FCC's standards are too vague. The FCC is currently taking public comments on proposed revisions to those standards. (More Julius Genachowski stories.)

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