If material is proven to be obscene, it no longer falls under the protection of the First Amendment. In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of citizens to decide what is obscene according to community standards.
Capitalizing on that right requires community-wide effort, but it can work. Just ask the citizens of Washington County, Tennessee, where public pressure brought about the demise of a Playboy cable television channel.
American Cablesystems, of Johnson City, Tennessee, began broadcasting the channel August 1 and voluntarily cancelled it December 1. General manager Robert Crowley said his company dropped the channel under pressure from local groups, primarily Tennessee Roundtable, a state affiliate of a national organization of conservative activists.
“I’ve never seen such a media focus across the country,” he said. “The religious group [Tennessee Roundtable] went at this like a politician would.”
After American Cablesystems began offering the Playboy channel, Tennessee Roundtable surveyed more than 3,000 citizens and found that 85 percent were opposed to the programming. The survey—shown to Washington County commissioners—was substantiated when a crowd of 800 attended a commissioners’ meeting to protest the channel. The county commissioners passed a resolution that said the programming was detrimental to the community and asked American Cablesystems to withdraw it. The company refused.
Next, Tennessee Roundtable videotaped Playboy programs and showed them to key businessmen, pastors, and citizens throughout the county. The viewers didn’t like what they saw. Richard Taylor, Tennessee Roundtable state director, said community response was remarkable. By November the company had lost almost half of its 800 Playboy subscribers. In addition, cable subscribers who weren’t receiving the Playboy channel threatened to cancel as well, although Crowley said few of them did.
Tennessee Roundtable publicly accused American Cablesystems of selling obscenity and said the company should be prosecuted. Because cable television does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission, its content is practically unregulated. However, if a court rules that program content is obscene, the material cannot be broadcast. But without going to court, American Cablesystems voluntarily dropped the Playboy channel—an unprecedented and surprising move.
“The market would not bear that kind of product here,” Crowley said. “That’s free enterprise. We were becoming known as the company with the Playboy channel, and not as the company that offers 27 products. We have to listen to the community. If people don’t want a product, it comes off the shelf.”
Citizens have successfully challenged the Playboy channel elsewhere. Last spring a grand jury in Hamilton County, Ohio, charged a Cincinnati cable television company with possessing and pandering obscenity after it began broadcasting the Playboy channel. In an out-of-court settlement, the cable company agreed to stop broadcasting X-rated films on the channel.
