A court of appeals overturned an FCC ruling that “fleeting expletives” on television are indecent and subject to fines. That means that celebrities can use sh*t and f&#* in a casual manner on live TV and the networks can’t get hit with large fines.

The court also said that the FCC was wrong when they said that allowing people to swear occasionally on television would tempt them to drop f bombs constantly. At first I thought the MTV Movie Awards took advantage of the ruling, even thought Sarah Silverman and Jack Nicholson swearing was bleeped out. It turned out this ruling came on Monday, so it’s not possible that the Movie Awards planners knew about it ahead of time.

This ruling doesn’t mean that swearing is fine on all American network television, just that the occasional curse word won’t result in heaps of fines:

In November 2006, the FCC ruled that “fleeting expletives” during prime time violated the Commission’s indecency and profanity prohibitions. Fox, with the support of the other broadcast networks, challenged the ruling, arguing that the FCC does not issue clear standards outlining acceptable content on TV and radio.

In a 2-1 ruling, the court found that the FCC’s policy against fleeting expletives is “arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act for failing to articulate a reasoned basis for its change in policy.” It cited the FCC’s own history of distinguishing between material that “dwells” on indecent content versus material that was “fleeting and isolated…”

The Court disagreed with the Commission’s reasoning that allowing fleeting curse words would result in a 24-hour barrage of expletives, saying that the Commission was “divorced from reality.” It is important to note that the Court’s decision is limited to fleeting curse words and should not be interpreted as a blanket license to allow swearing on TV.

[From Artstechnica.com via Digg]

The article sites Bono’s use of “f*&#ing” as an adjective during his acceptance speech at the 2003 Golden Globe Awards as an example of a fleeting expletive. Bono said “This is really, really, f&*#ing brilliant. Really, really, great.” NBC wasn’t fined for Bono’s use of the F word, as the FCC said it was an adjective and was not used to describe a sexual act. Howard Stern was hit with over a half million in fines by the FCC for supposed indecency in 2004, though, which prompted his move to Sirius satellite radio, where the FCC does not yet have jurisdiction.

Of course FCC chairman Kevin Martin has his panties in a twist over the ruling, and said “I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that ‘sh*t’ and ‘f&*#’ are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.”

Considering how boring most awards shows are, it’s not likely that a lot of kids will be watching. “Live” shows are also now broadcast at about a ten second delay after Bono’s much-publicized gaffe. Swear words are probably still going to be bleeped out anyway, but at least the person with their hand on the button can breathe a sigh of relief.

Here’s a list of fines issued and major events under the FCC’s indecency act.