Blacking Out Blue

The scene hardly befitted the pure white Georgia marble and serene proportions of the U.S. House of Representatives' Rayburn Office Building. There in a darkened hearing room last week, the House Subcommittee on Communications, along with assorted other members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, sat looking at two flickering TV screens. They were watching four male strippers, dressed only in top hats and white ties, undulate to a bump-and-grind version of Baby Face. Also on the program were Annie ("I've tried them all") Sprinkle's consumer guide to sex toys readily available from the greengrocer, hints for success at orgies, assorted massage-parlor ads and "swinging couple looking for other swinging couples" classifieds.

Catch 22. The Congressmen were screening video tapes of Midnight Blue, an hour-long soft-core TV program that until last month was seen weekly on public-access channel J of Manhattan Cable Television, a subsidiary of Time Inc. Blue had been blacked out by Manhattan Cable, explained Vice President Charlotte Schiff Jones, because of a "catch 22" of conflicting regulatory requirements.

When public-access TV was launched in New York City five years ago, the franchise provided that because of the larger number of channels possible on cable TV, some should be made available to any individual or community group for a nominal fee on a first-come, first-served basis. On channel J the fee is $50 an hour, and the producers are allowed to sell commercial time to help pay production costs.

Manhattan Cable, which provides equipment and basic instruction to anyone who asks for it, airs some 800 hours of programming a month, including Chinese language movies, Boy Scout activities, League of Women Voters shows, block parties and a Bulgarian hour. (Only twelve of those hours went to Midnight Blue when it was on.) New York State law specifically states that cable companies carrying public-access broadcasts shall have no say in program content and absolves them from all liability for such content, including obscenity. But the FCC regulations, while also barring content control, provide that cable companies "shall establish rules ... prohibiting the presentation of ... obscene or indecent matter." In addition, New York City, which has the power to franchise further cable expansion, says the cable companies can only censor to conform to the "applicable" law--but does not specify which one. Appeals for governmental clarification having gone unsatisfied, Manhattan Cable took action on Blue, citing the impossibility of obeying the conflicting city, state and federal requirements.

Midnight Blue Producer-Director Alex Bennett, who testified at the subcommittee hearings, argues that the show is not obscene, and its cancellation is "bully tactics because we don't have the money for legal fights. But we have contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, and it is now in their hands. If Manhattan Cable does not rectify the situation, we will sue." Manhattan Cable's Jones has said the company would "welcome" legal clarification, and the suspension of Blue is "a temporary move designed to contribute to a sober examination of the issues." She told the subcommittee she hoped that "sober examination" would result in the removal of "any liability from the cable operator and shift it to the producer."

New Yorkers, meanwhile, are having to do without Blue. The last show featured a demonstration of a product called "candy pants," in which a woman chewed part of the spun-sugar underpants off a man who was wearing them. Congress or the courts will have to decide whether or not that sort of thing can be allowed within the context of the FCC's goal of "opening new outlets for local expression [and] the promotion of diversity in television" and, if it cannot, who is to be held responsible.

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