The two most high-profile FCC undertakings during the previous administration revolved around trying to free corporate media owners from traditional restrictions and allow them to buy up and even properties and further consolidate the American media landscape. The second big push was to crank up broadcasting fines for indecency violations and rewrite the books in terms of what qualified as being indecent and profane.

The first initiative, thought to be a Big Business slam dunk, crashed rather spectacularly under the weight of a grassroots movement that, defying the political odds, was able to stand in the way of unfettered corporate media consolidation.

As for the second, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals this week rejected the FCC's radical attempt to redefine indecency, deeming it unconstitutional.

Bush's media push into indecency was clearly an attempt to politicize the FCC at a time when conservative activists and politicians were demanding some media scalps in the wake of Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction. But in its rush to rewrite its guideline, the GOP-leaning FCC clearly lost its bearings and issued a drastic, blanketing blueprint that was bound, at some point, to be found unconstitutional by the courts.

And specifically, the Bush FCC's ruling on the case involving U2 front man Bono was just completely baffling and turned its back on long-standing Commission guidelines. As a result, broadcasters, suddenly facing new massive FCC fines, really had no idea what would and would not be considered indecent, which is why the federal court stepped in, ruling broadcasters had “no way of knowing what the FCC will find offensive.”

It was during the Jan. 19, 2003, telecast of the Golden Globe awards show on NBC, when Bono accepted the best original song award and declared the honor to be “really, really fucking brilliant.” His comment was telecast unedited and Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council complained to the FCC, demanding it levy fines against NBC and its affiliates for indecency.

In the past, Bono's live F-bomb would not have been deemed “indecent” by the FCC because for decades the commission ruled that indecent language had to be used in the context of, or describing, “sexual or excretory organs or activities.” Meaning, Bono's use of “fucking” wasn't intended to titillate. It was intended as an exclamation point.

Plus, Bono's utterance was both fleeting and isolated, and captured at a live event. (i.e. Of course it wasn't scripted.) Those details meant there was virtually no chance the FCC would find Bono's profanity indecent because it was not “patently offensive” as measured by community standards.

But Bush's FCC changed the rules and declared that any use of the F-word, even for utterances captured live on TV at a sporting or news event, automatically qualified as an indecency violation.

Now, thanks to the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, the FCC has to go back to the drawing board. And I'm sure Brent Bozell is very unhappy.