On Monday, the FCC ruled against complainants that some particular TV episodes were indecent. This is good, IMO. However, in the ruling, they state: "The commission noted that there was no nudity and there was no evidence that the activity depicted was dwelled upon or was used to pander, titillate or shock the audience."

So they are saying that TV shows are not allowed to pander (to) the audience or titillate or shock them? Why the limitation? Would that mean that The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, or even Alfred Hitchcock Presents would be unacceptable? Most of their episodes were certainly intended to shock the audience. And don't most reality shows pander to their audience? (Not that it's my desire to defend them.) Some certainly intend to titillate.

Does this mean that the FCC has decided that TV shows must be bland and bereft of excitement, without regard to potential artistic merit? On the other hand, the FCC only moderates broadcast television. They have no say over cable-only TV. Does this mean that more adventurous shows will be forced to appear on cable? As it is, many of my favorite shows are not shown on primetime network TV. How long until one of the big four decides to make their own entertainment-based cable network? Okay, Fox already has, but no one has ever accused them of having any artistic merit, which comes through quite clearly on FX. Or is franchising TV shows to local affiliates too lucrative to just broadcast them themselves. And if so, does that mean that network TV will continue to get blander?

I think it's simple. They use that definition of indecency to retain a very broad range of power, but will choose to use that broad power selectively. The ridiculously broad definition gives them carte blanche to go after easy targets when they feel they need to (i.e. when enough of their constituents write them letters saying they'll refuse to donate money to their political party unless they do something about it.)

In reality, the FCC doesn't care how bland or "titilating" the material is, they just want to make sure the material doesn't cost voters or political dollars.