FCC Complaint Filed Against NBC's Las Vegas

The Parents Television Council has filed an indecency complaint against NBC for a February 15 broadcast of Las Vegas.

The complaint, filed with the Federal Communications Commission, states that NBC broadcast “a graphic nude scene” during prime time in the Central and Mountain Time zones.  Las Vegas airs at 9:00 p.m. in those areas.

According to the PTC, the episode of Las Vegas featured a scene in which “three girls gather together in the center of the casino floor and begin to disrobe. They strip until they are naked and then begin running around the casino. In the security office, the girls can be seen on the television monitors running around the casino naked. Their buttocks are visible, and only shadows obscure their breasts and groins.”

In a statement Tim Winter, the PTC President, said, “This crossed the line of common sense decency. NBC seems eager to test the FCC's resolve to fine stations for violating broadcast decency laws.

“I remind NBC that the broadcast airwaves are public property. The TV networks do not own them. The TV stations do not own them. The industry must be held accountable for the content they air and the FCC must act in the public interest by slapping NBC with a significant indecency fine.”

Winter continued, “Only less than a month ago the FCC handed down $1.4 million in fines against 52 ABC affiliates for a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue that focused extensively on an actress' naked buttocks, a side view of her bare breasts and a full frontal view of her nudity (obscured only by her arm and hand covering her breasts and groin), but that didn't deter NBC from airing barely obscured female nudity during a primetime airing of Las Vegas.”

This episode aired one day after Jane Fonda used the “c-word” on NBC's Today show in an interview about the play “The Vagina Dialogues.”

For more on the FCC complaint, click here.

Kristen Fyfe is senior writer at the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the MediaResearchCenter.