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                        STATEMENT OF 
                COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS
            APPROVING IN PART, DISSENTING IN PART

Re:  Complaints Against Various Broadcast Licensees 
Regarding Their Airing of the ``Golden Globe Awards,'' 
Memorandum Opinion and Order

     I support the decision to find the utterance of the f-
word on NBC's broadcast of the ``Golden Globe Awards'' to be 
both indecent and profane.  I found ludicrous the 
Enforcement Bureau's decision that a word that might 
otherwise be indecent is not indecent or profane merely 
because it is used as an adjective or expletive.   The f-
word clearly meets the definition of indecency whether used 
as an adjective, expletive, ``intensifier'' (as NBC 
curiously argues here), or any other part of speech.  

     I do not agree with all aspects of the majority's 
analysis.  While I am pleased that the majority recognizes 
that profanity is not limited to blasphemy, I disagree that 
we need to give notice before we apply the law of the land.  
The better argument is that the statute itself gives due 
notice.  Along these same lines, I disagreed last year when 
a majority at the Commission similarly found that notice was 
required prior to sending an indecency case to a hearing for 
license revocation, notwithstanding that the statute 
expressly provides for such an action.  In past cases, when 
there have been truly outrageous violations or repeat 
offenses, I have sought to have cases sent to hearings to 
determine if the license should be revoked.  This may not be 
a case where a revocation of license is in order.  But 
neither is it a case that warrants no penalty at all.  I 
believe the Commission would be fully within its rights to 
impose a fine for this particular instance of profanity and 
indecency.  We send entirely the wrong signal by failing to 
do so.