PTC Complains About NCIS

The Parents Television Council has filed an indecency complaint against CBS drama NCIS.

The Oct. 25 episode, said PTC, "aired a scene containing a gruesome murder and blatant sexual content at a hour when millions of children were in the viewing audience." The complaint was filed against WUSA-TV Washington by Dan Isett, director of corporate and goverment affairs for PTC.

The episode dealt with a murdered military wife who had been earning some extra money as an online cybersex model.

Complaints have to be filed against a station, not a network, but PTC wants the FCC to fine every station that aired the show.

The FCC does not regulate violent content, so the "gruesome murder" would not be actionable. PTC also cited a striptease scene.

In general, FCC indecency complaints have been decreasing, though there was a bump in July attirbutable to PTC complaints against Fox and ABC.

Tuesday's complaint, given PTC's easy-file online form, could well generate thousands of FCC e-mails, that would be more complaints than the FCC received in all of the month of September (922).

CBS declined to comment.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.