US: The US Federal Communications Commission has ruled that U2 singer Bono's utterance of an obscenity during this year's broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards did not constitute a violation of America's broadcast indecency rules, reports Conor O'Clery.
On Monday, the government agency's Enforcement Bureau rejected complaints by the Parents Television Council and others that Bono's use of the phrase "this is really, really f***ing brilliant" failed to meet the test for indecency.
The bureau ruled that Bono's indiscretion was so "fleeting and isolated" that it did not run foul of the rules. The commission defines indecent speech as language that, in context, depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities or organs in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.
As a threshold matter, the material aired doesn't fall into that category, the bureau ruled.
"The word 'f***ing' my be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities," the bureau wrote. "Rather, the performer used the word 'f***ing' as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation. "