The FCC has decided to fine CBS $3.6 million for teen sex:

The FCC said an episode of the CBS crime drama "Without a Trace" that aired in December 2004 was indecent, citing the graphic depiction of "teenage boys and girls participating in a sexual orgy."

CBS objected, saying the program "featured an important and socially relevant storyline warning parents to exercise greater supervision of their teenage children."

Regardless of our positions on freedom of speech as it relates to mindless commercial crap, can we all agree that this statement by CBS poisons the minds of young people by making them think it's okay to lie in pursuit of a buck, or to avoid facing legal consequences? Why can't they just say, "The program was intended to titillate viewers without stepping over the line of decency as we understood the FCC to have drawn it. We regret violating the standards, but would appreciate it if the FCC would draw the standards more clearly in advance so we don't end up in such situations again"?

Honestly, why do people in corporate America think it's okay to issue such transparent lies, so routinely? Do we Americans really think it's fine to lie to make your corporation look better? It doesn't even make the corporation look better - it's such a transparent lie, it only makes them look like a bunch of slimy weasels. This is what they ought to be fined for - for teaching kids that if you come home from a drinking party with a dent in the family car, you should tell your dad you got it swerving to avoid hitting a faun. The airwaves, as Edward R. Murrow was always reminding us, are a public trust.