Consumer indecency complaints continued their jagged, unpredictable pattern for the third quarter of 2006, FCC statistics indicate.

The latest stats, issued on December 29th (then revised on January 11th) indicate that the agency received 179 "indecency/obscenity" complaints in July, up to 404 in August, shooting way up to 161,587 in September.

In contrast, "general criticism" complaints remained steady at between 206 to almost 250 filings for the same three months.

These figures conform to a "roller coaster" pattern for indecency complaints that goes back several years.

11,326 consumers filed indecency or obscenity complaints with the FCC in April of this year, the FCC reports, followed by 40,000 in May. But in June only 741 consumers lodged such complaints.

The figures hopped about even more dramatically last year. In January of 2005 the FCC counted 138,652 such complaints filed with the agency, but by April the number had dropped to 2,101. In October a record low of 544 citizens contacted the FCC on the issue, but by February of 2006 it had leaped back up to 138,527.

Critics of FCC indecency enforcement say that these sudden waves of complaints are the product of Internet campaigns by TV decency organizations against certain programs. The anti-indecency groups say such criticisms come largely from the entertainment industry and should not be taken seriously.

The latest statistics come as Fox Television has asked the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out several FCC indecency decisions against them for comments made by Nicole Richie and Cher at the Billboard Music Awards.

At the 2002 Awards Cher declared that "People have been telling me I'm on the way out every year, right? So fuck ‘em."

At the 2003 ceremony TV star Richie asked if "you ever tried to get cow shit out of a Prada purse? It’s not so fucking simple."

Fox argues that until now, the FCC had not cited broadcasters for isolated, accidental use of dirty words.