BlogWood: MT Archives

Fuck this shit: the FCC is going too far

The fundamentalist culture warriors are at it again. This is downright silly, but the scarey part is that Michael Powell may well take it seriously.

Looks like the S-word might be the next profanity in the sites of indecency foes.

Attorney John Thompson, whose complaints about Howard Stern helped prompt Clear Channel to banish the jock and the FCC to fine the company almost half a million dollars, says he has faxed a complaint to the FCC about Sunday night's 60 Minutes broadcast, in which singer Mary J. Blige uttered an under-her-breath "shit."

According to Thomson, he sent the complaint yesterday to FCC Chairman Michael Powell and his senior legal adviser. He did not contact CBS or 60 Minutes and neither had any comment. One CBS spokesperson confirmed the word had aired, though another expressed some doubt.

Thompson was alerted by a piece on The Schnitt Show on Clear Channel's WIOD(AM) Miami.

A check of the show's Web site (www.schnittshow.com) provided an audio clip of the Blige expletive underneath this caption: "Mary J. Blige cursing during 60 minutes, will Viacom be nailed by the FCC for this?"

While Clear Channel yanked Stern, saying it was indecent, Viacom did not and Monday asked the FCC to reconsider its decision making swear words actionable regardless of context.

Thompson in his complaint said: "This constitutes a violation of FCC-enforced decency standards, just a surely as does Bono

Bullshit. TV should not have to be dumbed down to to a 5 year old's level. 60 minutes is a serious news show. It is not a kid's show. It is not a cartoon aimed at children. It is a show aimed at adults, and an occasional unintentional possible utterance of the word "shit" is not going to harm anyone.

Clear Channel is carrying water for the Bush administration. They were huge cheerleaders of his illegal invasion, and they do his bidding by yanking Howard Stern’s show off the air. Do we really need to spend time and resources censoring mainstream television just to avoid having to talk to our children about the English language?

If you are worried about what your kids are watching on TV, then supervise them. But don’t shelter them too much, else they might grow up to be over-sensitive self-important histrionic hacks seeking puritanical control over the prurience of the proles.