This is Bullshit
From Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine:
The FCC has outlawed the single most essential word in political discourse and protest: bullshit.
In its latest batch of nannyisms, the FCC declared shit and all its variants, including bullshit, not merely indecent which is where the case law stood after the Supreme Court washed the seven dirty words out of George Carlin's mouth in 1978 Â but also now profane. Since outmoded broadcast censorship legislation was passed in 1927, giving the government this constitutionally dubious authority, the FCC had not once found any word to be profane until 2004, when it ruled against Bono's joyful utterance of "fucking" at the Golden Globes. Now "shit" et al join this devil's dictionary. And the FCC warns that they are not merely profane but "presumptively profane," which means that except in "rare" and "unusual circumstances," to speak these words on the air will guarantee you a penalty.
Can we please abolish the FCC, or at least it's censorship power. This has become ridiculous since Janet Jackson.
How hard is this, if you don't like it, change the fuckin' channel. If enough people agree with you, the market will respond with clean programming (oh wait, already happenend). If your worried about your kids turn on the disney channel or radio, Nickalodian (sp?), hallmark, etc, etc. Stop censoring what I get to see or hear.
I think it is a travesty that Howard Stern was forced to satallite. Although I never listen to him, I think the FCC treated him poorly. The point is, it was my choice not to listen, not some nanny in Washington who thinks I am old enough to hear or see.
The FCC has outlawed the single most essential word in political discourse and protest: bullshit.
In its latest batch of nannyisms, the FCC declared shit and all its variants, including bullshit, not merely indecent which is where the case law stood after the Supreme Court washed the seven dirty words out of George Carlin's mouth in 1978 Â but also now profane. Since outmoded broadcast censorship legislation was passed in 1927, giving the government this constitutionally dubious authority, the FCC had not once found any word to be profane until 2004, when it ruled against Bono's joyful utterance of "fucking" at the Golden Globes. Now "shit" et al join this devil's dictionary. And the FCC warns that they are not merely profane but "presumptively profane," which means that except in "rare" and "unusual circumstances," to speak these words on the air will guarantee you a penalty.
Can we please abolish the FCC, or at least it's censorship power. This has become ridiculous since Janet Jackson.
How hard is this, if you don't like it, change the fuckin' channel. If enough people agree with you, the market will respond with clean programming (oh wait, already happenend). If your worried about your kids turn on the disney channel or radio, Nickalodian (sp?), hallmark, etc, etc. Stop censoring what I get to see or hear.
I think it is a travesty that Howard Stern was forced to satallite. Although I never listen to him, I think the FCC treated him poorly. The point is, it was my choice not to listen, not some nanny in Washington who thinks I am old enough to hear or see.
posted by hurtleg at 3:37 PM
1 Comments:
I'm inclined to agree that censorship is a bad thing, but then again, if you insist on hearing and using the words fucking bullshit, you have the print media and the internet for such matters. In today's technological world, I don't think Stern is a victim, and neither are we. Still, I'm against censorship, I just don't think it's that big of a deal today, given the options.
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