While at the podium during the broadcast of the awards show, Bono let slip "this is really, really, f------ brilliant". 

The Parents Television Council and more than 200 individuals made complaints to the FCC against dozens of NBC affiliates that aired the broadcast. On Monday the FCC may have opened the floodgates of more f-word slinging in prime-time when they made a ruling that Bono’s use of the word did not constitute a violation of the nation's broadcast indecency rules. 

The FCC said that the singer’s use of the word was so "fleeting and isolated" it did not reach the level of indecent speech under the FCC rules.  According to a Hollywood Reporter story, those rules stipulate that indecent speech is language that used in a context that “depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities or organs in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards.” 

The FCC stated in their ruling, “The word 'f---ing' my be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities. Rather, the performer used the word 'f---ing' as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation. Indeed, in similar circumstances, we have found that offensive language used as an insult rather than as a description of sexual or excretory activities or organs is not within the scope of the commission's prohibition of indecent programme content." 

Should be interesting to see what impact this decision has on prime-time TV and if it will fire up activists groups to rally for stricter rules or definitions of indecency. 

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