Will FCC lighten up under Obama?

Whatever an Obama Administration does in the way of revamping the FCC will have no effect on the case currently before the Supreme Court that may help determine whether one-time expletives constitute a violation of federal law, or if a network must be shown to have allowed repeated uses of expletives before it can be punished.

“If I had to guess,” said BYU’s Carter, “I would say that the court will try to reach some kind of narrow decision to avoid the constitutional questions altogether.”

A senior network executive based in Washington, D.C., who asked not to be identified, expects a more reasonable FCC under Obama.

“Obama has said that indecency should be regulated by parents, not the government, which is our mantra as well,” the executive said. “As a Harvard-trained lawyer, I guess he finds government intrusion appalling. He’s publicly made clear that he has no stomach for government regulation. I’m actually with Obama. I believe we’ll see a backing off of enforcement of indecency.”

The network executive believes that certain parents' groups, especially ones on the right wing, will continue to be active no matter which president is in office.

“This is the Christian right. The people filing complaints will keep filing complaints,” the executive said, referring specifically to the PTC. “This organization has to justify its existence. This is how they raise money, by scaring its members into thinking that people are having sex on television.”

Said the PTC’s Isett: “We’ll continue to hold the FCC responsible for the enforcement of the law.”

Michael Ventre lives in Los Angeles an is a frequent contributor to msnbc.com

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