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Gnikcuf FCC prudes

Current.org:

"So, can we say 'suck'?"

That's what Fresh Air co-executive producer Danny Miller asked attorney Steve Schaffer. Miller was calling because emerging star Nellie McKay uses the word in a song excerpted in the program's review of her album Get Away From Me.

No, said Schaffer. No "suck." Though McKay was insulting somebody and not talking about sex, the word's sexual connections make it a no-no in the new landscape of media regulation. Miller cut out the offending word and spliced it in backwards, leaving alert Fresh Air listeners to wonder why McKay would think something "skcus."
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As a result of the Bono ruling, broadcasters have two red flags to watch out for — not counting obscenity, which is not immediately at issue.

* Indecency: As defined by the Pacifica case, it's material that "in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities." The "community" is generally interpreted by the commission as "the national community as a whole," and the "standards" are as vague as ever.
* Profanity: The FCC said in the Bono decision it's commonly defined as "vulgar, irreverent or coarse language" but officially cites a definition from a 1972 case that reads, in part ". . . language so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance." To that, the commission added that it "will also consider under the definition of 'profanity' the 'f-word' and those words (or variants thereof) that are as highly offensive as the 'f-word.'"

And which words are those? The open-ended ruling against offensiveness has attorneys preaching absolute caution. It could greatly expand the commission's jurisdiction, Crigler says, and the elimination of the "informal or fleeting" excuse means the stakes are higher. The FCC "used to cut people some slack, but now that's gone," Crigler says. "One word will do you."

Attorneys say the new profanity standard, with its call for "case-by-case" analysis, especially has a chilling effect on free speech in that it leaves programmers afraid to air things that should be legal. The upshot, Schaffer says, is "adults are wasting an incredible amount of time discussing words they should be able to say."

"We've had calls asking, can we say 'tit?'" his colleague, Larry Miller, says. "We're looking at each other saying, 'can you believe we're discussing this in a law firm?'"

Among the first to be chilled was PBS, which put sanitized versions of programs on the default "hard feeds" on its satellite. Uncut offensive language, as in this month's Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness, was available to stations on the optional soft feed.

Fresh Air will edit a pivotal Sweeny Todd lyric for an upcoming broadcast, Miller says, because it includes "shit." The program aired the line in the past because its artistic value was such that Fresh Air producers were willing to endure calls from offended listeners. "Now," says Miller, "I don't think we could ask stations to take the risk."