The Federal Communications Commission yesterday released its latest numbers on indecency complaints, showing a wildly erratic pattern better explained to some observers by pressure campaigns than by public opinion.

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 the FCC's indecency policies say that these figures represent the work of groups like the Parents Television Council more than a spontaneous expression of public concern. Yesterday on public program Fresh Air TV attorney Stephen Weiswasser told host Terry Gross that the process of deciding what is indecent has become politicized.

"What we have is a highly political process in which a relatively small number of people represented by a couple of activist groups are generating thousands and thousands of complaints about particular programs that use words that those groups don't like," Weiswasser said. "Or that have scenes that those groups don't like. And they have politicized the process by doing that."

In the same show Tim Winter of the Parents Television Council (PTC) dismissed broadcaster concerns.

"Most of the concerns are manufactured," Winter told Gross. "They're intended to be, you know, wrapping themselves in the American flag to allow them not to abide by the law."

The PTC's Web site includes a sophisticated database form system that allows a consumer to file a complaint with the FCC about a program, even if they have not actually viewed the show. Today their site includes a "latest highlights" page announcing a campaign against the "vulgar and obscene language" that actors Helen Mirren and Calista Flockhart used during the recent Emmy Awards ceremony broadcast by NBC.

A link below the announcement instructs the user to "click here to file a complaint with the FCC about this broadcast." A "look up a TV show" drop down menu sits at the top of the form which helps the user file an official complaint. It summarizes the PTC's analyses of well over one hundred television shows.

"The Simpsons," for example, has received a "yellow rating" from PTC, which describes the program as a "clean show with mild sexual innuendo."

"It has been known to feature objectionable content especially in the categories of sex and religion," the PTC summary continues. "For instance, in the premier episode of the ’05 season, Homer allows the mafia to film a pornographic movie in the Simpson home. There are no graphic depictions of sex in the scene, but there is talk of lesbian pornography."