Poet wins lawsuit against FCC censorship

According to the pridesource site, Wharton is hosting the decorated poet Sarah Jones:

She also received an NYCLU Calloway Award in recognition of Jones as the first artist in history to sue the Federal Communications Commission for censorship. The lawsuit resulted in reversal of the censorship ruling that had targeted her hip-hop poem recording, “Your Revolution.”

A regular uncensored guest on public radio, she has also made numerous TV appearances on HBO, NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, CNN, and in her own special, “The Sarah Jones Show,” on Bravo.

Event details are here.

The group that helped Jones fight against the FCC has provided a description of the lawsuit:

The work entitled “Your Revolution” is a protest against the degrading treatment of women in popular culture.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York challenges the FCC’s indecency determination for focusing on sexual terms in the work without any acknowledgment that their context is a critique of the frequently offensive treatment of women in popular hip hop music. The FCC filed a motion to dismiss arguing that the artist can not challenge the agency’s determination in federal court.

[…]

While pleased that the FCC recognized the error of its ways, we remain concerned about FCC “indecency” procedures and the harm that can be done to artists like Sarah Jones, and will continue to work on the issue.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.