Speaking on Thursday to Talk Radio 1210 WPHT in Philadelphia, Mr. Pai said, “I have had a chance to see the clip now and so, as we get complaints, and we’ve gotten a number of them, we are going to take the facts
that we find and we are going to apply the law as it’s been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we’ll take the appropriate action.”
Mr. Colbert, the host of “The Late Show” on CBS, has come under fire for a joke he told Monday night in his opening monologue, in
which he used coarse language to suggest a sexual relationship between President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Will Review Complaints About Colbert Joke, Chairman Says -
By DAVE ITZKOFFMAY 5, 2017
Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a radio interview
that his agency was reviewing complaints about a controversial joke told by Stephen Colbert, the CBS late-night host, to determine if further action was warranted.
While obscene content is “prohibited by law at all times of the day,” indecent
and profane content are prohibited “between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience”
Taking its instruction from the Supreme Court, the F. C.C.
says obscene content, “must appeal to an average person’s prurient interest; depict or describe sexual conduct in a
‘patently offensive’ way; and, taken as a whole, lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.”
A press representative for CBS declined to comment on Friday evening.
