Today in Law: If Nobody Hears an F-Bomb, Is It Still Indecent?

CYBERSPACE—Not everyone at AVN is a football fan, but we're pretty much all interested in censorship—so when three people filed indecency complaints with the Federal Communications Commission over something they saw during the recent Patriots-Packer game, we were interested ... especially because no one heard anything! The object of the complainers' ire was New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who, after his team made some disappointing plays during the Patriots-Packers game played at Lambeau Field on November 30, stood on the sidelines and mouthed the word "fuck" silently several times in succession. According to an article on prominent attorney Jonathan Turley's blog, one Indianapolis parent wrote in his complaint that "6 year old children know how to read lips even if there is no sound," while a Pennsylvania grandparent stated that, "My 8 year old grandson was watching the game with me and even commented that he [Brady] should not have said that." The problem, of course, is that Brady (pictured) didn't "say that"; he just mouthed it—and such silence doesn't meet the FCC's definition of broadcast indecency, which states, "language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities"—and merely mouthing an "indecent" word doesn't rise to the level of "depicts or describes." What the FCC will do with the complaints is anybody's guess. None of the "usual suspects" in the right-wing religious blogosphere have picked up on issue yet, but it's likely that they will. After all, they've spent a good part of the last few years complaining about TV shows like Dating Naked that feature computer-masked bare body parts, which they also consider to be "indecent." So consider this a call to arms, adult entertainment fans: Whenever you're at a sporting (or, really, any event) that's being televised, feel free to silently mouth epithets like "fuck"—because we all know that if nobody's around to hear a tree falling in the forest, it doesn't make a sound.