Study: 50% of indecency complaints directed at Fox; CNN's 'Situation Room' tops cablers

By Eriq Gardner

Members of the "tea party" don't like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's use of the word "teabagging."

According to FCC records obtained and analyzed by SNL Kagan, viewers have filed 1,239 indecency complaints connected to the phrase. The only thing more controversial was a rant delivered by CNN's Jack Cafferty against China on an April 2008 edition of "The Situation Room."

Of course, NBC and CNN don't even come close to the amount of ire directed at a March 2009 episode of Fox's "Family Guy" in which a baby drank horse semen with his breakfast cereal. That episode generated a whopping 188,368 complaints. Thanks in large part to "Family Guy" and some of its live sports programming, Fox leads all broadcast networks in getting under the skins of puritanical Americans. Almost 50% of the top 50 broadcast TV indecency complaints filed at the FCC were directed at Fox. Take a bow, Rupert.

Here's SNL Kagan's rundown of the leading FCC complaints for cable nets:

And the rundown of the leading FCC complaints for broadcast nets: