The Smoking Gun has a smpling of letters sent to the FCC regarding the March 18 broadcast where Oprah and guest discussed sexuality . . . FCC Swamped With Oprah Indecency Complaints.

While the letters themselves are entertaining . . . they may very well backfire.

Fans of Jimmy Kimmel and Howard Stern wrote 1600 letters to the FCC complaining that Oprah had not been cited for the March 18 episode while Stern has been cited a number of times for discussing similar or related topics.

In a discussion, Oprah and guest discussed two specific practices that have gotten the most publicity . . . the rainbow in which a woman uses various shades of lipstick in order to paint a rainbow on a man’s penis during oral sex . . . and . . . tossed salad, a variation of simple rimming or oral sex to the anus.

Stern’s fans were right to complain that the FCC has been unfair in citing his show while letting the Oprah show off the hook but the complaint should not be that Oprah should be cited but that neither should be cited. Fans who complained that both should be cited are falling into the fallacy of logic that the rules regarding discussion of sexual acts are somehow just.

Certainly, Stern’s show has a stronger case against citing as it is clearly for adults while the Oprah program is broadcast during the day when kids may be watching the set. However, to describe a sexual act is not the same as condoning promiscuity or poor choices. Watch Jerry Springer any day of the week and the topics are far more tittilating than the Oprah content.

We should not encourage Ashcroft in his silly war to save our morals . . . nor should we encourage Oprah to be fined for something as ridiculous as this. The more appropriate approach for the Stern fans would have been to complain against the Stern fines by stating clearly that the community of values held by most Americans does not find him offensive. Folks like Ashcroft do NOT represent the majority of all Americans so the FCC needs to take into account a more generally liberal level of community standards rather than trying to forcefeed conservative puritan values on the rest of us.

That said, some of the letters are obviously jokes . . . and are entertaining when viewed that way. However, they were all filed and used as part of the justification for the fine . . . I’m sorry, but I really think they should have put the “my kid’s hgead exploded” letter in the joke bin rather than the evidence of violation of community standards bin.