How does the FCC define indecent material on television? If you’re Fox, you’d likely answer that the FCC doesn’t really know – or has several different definitions depending on who’s asking.

That’s at least the impression the network gives in the case of Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., which was recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case primarily addresses the question of whether the FCC’s decisions as to what constitutes “indecency” on public broadcast television between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. are unconstitutionally arbitrary under the First Amendment. Fox alleges that whereas the FCC has permitted primetime television broadcasts of Steven Spielberg’s "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler’s List," complete with...