******************************************************** 
                      NOTICE
********************************************************

This document was converted from Microsoft Word.

Content from the original version of the document such as
headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, graphics, and page numbers
will not show up in this text version.

All text attributes such as bold, italic, underlining, etc. from the
original document will not show up in this text version.

Features of the original document layout such as
columns, tables, line and letter spacing, pagination, and margins
will not be preserved in the text version.

If you need the complete document, download the
Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat version.

*****************************************************************



                        STATEMENT OF 
                COMMISSIONER KEVIN J. MARTIN
            APPROVING IN PART, CONCURRING IN PART

Re:       Complaints Against Various Television Licensees 
     Concerning Their February 1, 2004, Broadcast of the 
     Super Bowl XXXVIII Halftime Show, Notice of Apparent 
     Liability for Forfeiture

 I write separately to express two concerns.  
 First, hundreds of thousands of viewers across the country 
filed complaints asking us to find various aspects of the 
Super Bowl halftime show indecent.  Some even complained 
that the whole show was indecent.  This Notice, however, 
analyzes only one segment of the show.  We have a duty to 
the public to fully analyze all of the complaints that we 
receive.1
 Second, as I have said before, we need to affirm local 
broadcasters' ability - and responsibility - to reject 
inappropriate programming.2  This obligation is critical to 
local broadcasters' ability to keep coarser network 
programming off the air in their communities.  The network 
affiliates asked us to clarify that this right over three 
years ago.  We still have not acted, and thus I concur in 
the decision not to fine the affiliates in this instance.

_________________________

1 Note 6 of the Notice acknowledges that ``[s]ome of the 
complainants also object to other material in the Super Bowl 
broadcast,'' but then concludes in two sentences that 
examples of such material were not indecent. 
2 See Written Statement of Commissioner Kevin J. Martin, 
Before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation 
at 4 (February 2004), 
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-
243865A2.doc.  See also Petition for Inquiry into Network 
Practices, filed by Network Affiliated Stations Alliance 
(March 2001); Motion for Declaratory Ruling, filed by 
Network Affiliated Stations Alliance (June 2001).