The Seven Words You CAN Say On TV

[Seven Deadly Sins]

For the foregoing reasons, we strike down the FCC’s indecency policy. We do not suggest that the FCC could not create a constitutional policy. We hold only that the FCC’s current policy fails constitutional scrutiny. The petition for review is hereby GRANTED.

Read more about the decision here

Read the official full decision here

It's a shame Carlin died before he could see this.

In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the Second Circuit Court has officially struck down the FCC's indecency policy, stating that the restrictions were too vague and too subjective to ever be concretely enforceable. In addition, the FCC's history of being incredibly vague or uncertain about a couple specific situations (such as "dickhead" being permissible in NYPD blue while "bullshit" is banned, or permission being given to run the uncut version of Saving Private Ryan because the swearing was crucial to the plot, while it was banned in a documentary about the blues called The Blues, or about the FCC's decision to fine Good Morning America for using the term "bullshitter" in an interview, only to immediately overturn that decision because it was a "bona fide news program") made it impossible for broadcasters to effectively gauge what would result in a fine.

The court cited cases in which broadcasters have specifically stated that the only way to ensure that they are not fined is to simply not air live broadcasts. These situations include a Vermont TV station which refused to air a political debate because one candidate had a history of swearing; Phoenix, AZ stations refusing to air the funeral of Pat Tillman, a soldier killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, due to the explicit language used by Tillman's family; and Moosic, PA stating that they would no longer ever air non-critical live news broadcasts because of the FCC's statute.

Any thoughts? Personally, I think this is a tired old policy that has far outlived its necessity, and am glad to see it go.

 

[cim]

It was never necessary.

While before, parents had to actually, like, give a shit if they wanted to regulate content their children listen to, nowadays it's easier than ever. Between v-chips, directly controlling the computers children use, the fact that no one listens to radio anymore, and whatnot, regulation doesn't even require actively paying attention. Any arguments for indecency based on this logic, while faulty 40 years ago, are incredibly silly now.

I for one welcome our new shitpissfuckcunting world with open arms. If you have the time, actually read the decision. It's incredibly well thought out.

 

[Seven Deadly Sins]

I think now is the perfect time to post this.

 

[Mike B]

I hate double standards. I heard bitch, ass, go to hell and many other things in movies but couldn't say it myself because it was "in a movie." Who gives a shit where it comes from.

 

[cim]

I hate double standards. I heard bitch, ass, go to hell and many other things in movies but couldn't say it myself because it was "in a movie." Who gives a shit where it comes from.

What are you talking about?

 

[Fishy]

Added Thomas, "Just suck it. Get in there and seriously suck it."

Aha, that second post of yours with that article, Will, was seriously awesome. I mean, I guess it was a little crass and overzealous with the actual quotes in the article, but I guess that was to drive the point home, right?

Fuckin' awesome chyeah!!

 

[cantab]

Does anyone know what the rules on this are in the UK? I don't think they're as stringent, but don't know any specifics.

I agree with the principle that obscenity on TV - both words and images - should be restricted in the daytime, though there should be minimal restrictions late at night, since the rationale is to reduce exposure of children to obscenity.

And at Chris is me: Exactly how does technology stop a kid hearing swearing on the channel they are watching?

 

[Mike B]

What are you talking about?

About how normal people cussing is not acceptable, whereas it's tolerated on television/etc

 

[Seven Deadly Sins]

Actually isn't it the other way around? People swear all they want IRL, but it WAS banned previously on TV and supported by massive fines.

@cantab: V-Chip prevents TV over a certain rating level from being viewed, and now that the switch to digital is in effect, EVERYONE has one. No "mature programming", no swearing. That simple.

 

[vonFiedler]

Mike B means when you're under 18. Course, I was 15 when I stopped giving a fuck.

I don't agree with the notion that you can protect your children from images or ideas. V-Chip and monitor your computers all you want, they'll go to a friend's house. When you protect a child from concepts, all you are doing is sticking your fingers in your ears and telling yourself that you don't have to deal with your child expanding in unplanned ways.

 

[cim]

Mike B means when you're under 18. Course, I was 15 when I stopped giving a fuck.

No one's given a fuck for about 3 years with me. I think you guys are mistaking a high school classroom for how society in general works.

I'm glad I don't have to censor myself on the radio anymore.

 

[cantab]

@cantab: V-Chip prevents TV over a certain rating level from being viewed, and now that the switch to digital is in effect, EVERYONE has one. No "mature programming", no swearing. That simple.

A quick Wikipedia shows it doesn't cover news and sport, or commercials. Also, it's a solution exclusively to North America. Finally, even with such a system, someone still has to do the rating.

If anything, I think it could be worse. When the FCC was saying "you cannot say this", that got struck down as unconstitutional. But if the FCC instead says "if you say this you're rated M", then their guidelines can still be just as vague before.

Also, how are ratings to be given? If it's to be film-style, with material submitted to the censors before broadcast, that's a massive amount of work, considering how much TV there is. Who pays? The government, wasting more taxpayers' money? The broadcasters? They'll pass costs onto the viewers or the advertisers, and that also acts as a disincentive to produce new material. And in this case, what about live programming? Is it an automatic top rating? Is it unrated altogether?

If on the other hand it's basically self-done, TV stations checking their own programs against published guidelines, well that's no different to the current situation in that TV stations still won't know where they are and risk being fined for breaking vague rules.

I don't think the idea of embedding rating data in the TV broadcast is a bad one, but it's not a panacea either. And a broadcaster will still get complaints if someone swears a load in a 6pm family show even if it has a M rating flag.

 

[Ballad]

can someone give me a tl;dr of what words I can now hear on South Park when not streaming from SPS

 

[Seven Deadly Sins]

There's a difference between a broadcasting network getting complaints about swearing and them getting a fine for $200,000 or more. When a network gets complaints, they have the option of acting on said complaints in an attempt to keep business, or they can ignore said complaints and just keep on trucking. When they get fined by the FCC for something they may or may not be able to control, however, there's no recourse.

 

[Mike B]

Well I am taking this from saying "cunt" on my facebook profile. Seems a few people told me they didn't like it and my dad felt like I should be ashamed. I admit highschool is not for cussing, but I get the stupid antiswear people outside there.


And what is the point of minors being under the stipulation to not cuss?

 

[Ballad]

And what is the point of minors being under the stipulation to not cuss?

I've always wondered this, too. It makes no sense to me that age should be relative to what words you can use. It probably has something more to do with the ideas behind certain words, though. I.e. parents wouldn't want their children talking about sexual topics, which explains fuck, dick, cunt, w/e. For words like shit that just reword ideas children regularly use... I really don't understand the point of it.

 

[cim]

Well I am taking this from saying "cunt" on my facebook profile. Seems a few people told me they didn't like it and my dad felt like I should be ashamed. I admit highschool is not for cussing, but I get the stupid antiswear people outside there.


And what is the point of minors being under the stipulation to not cuss?

What does this have to do at all with the decision?

Whether or not Vchips are available outside of North America is obviously completely irrelevant to a US decision. The problem with the law was that it was nothing as Cantab described it. The FCC did not say "you can't say this". Their terms were far broader than that, and incredibly hard to predict. "shit" deals with sexual or excretory organs", but not dick. If it's said by a soldier in a movie then it's exempt for some reason. There are a huge variety of examples. And charging 35 million PER AFFILIATE (so for ABC, FOX, NBC, 35m x 1000) is absolutely ridiculous since you can't predict what gets you fined, and live TV becomes impossible.

Also, the court did not mandate a rating system. It's existed already for decades.

 

[cantab]

And charging 35 million PER AFFILIATE (so for NBC, 35m x 1000) is absolutely ridiculous since you can't predict what gets you fined, and live TV becomes impossible.

Bloody hell, yeah that's extortionate. I mean obviously corporate fines need to be big to have enough impact, but 35 million once is about a third of ITVs annual profits, although I guess the US networks make more.

But anyway, suppose we do go with a rating system and no absolute bans. Are the guidelines for the ratings going to be any clearer? Are the fines going to be any more reasonable? Is live TV going to be any more viable? Or is everything not specifically targeted at children just going to get a top rating slapped on to avoid the risk, losing a lot of the potential the system has in helping those of all ages be informed about what to expect.

Edit: I've read a bit more. Indeed the ratings have been around for some time. But perhaps they will become more important, now TV-MA (I think that's the top rating) programming can potentially contain any language. Previously parents could expect certain stuff to not be on television, period - now that's not the case, they need to make use of the ratings if they don't want their kids (or themselves!) hearing such language.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's almost impossible for the new situation to be WORSE than the old one. But that doesn't mean the new arrangements won't still be a bit crap.

 

[cim]

cantab - Considering the FCC had zero jurisdiction over cable where networks regularly self censor, I feel that parents can still expect "average" programming to be okay content wise.

In other extraordinary fine news, my non profit radio station faced a $250,000 fine for each instance of profanity used on the air before this ruling. One violation and we're gone forever. For a single word, which we can't accurately predict, regardless of context. Play a CD and it turns out when the artist said "Clean" they meant "not at all clean"? If anyone reports it to the FCC, you're fucked for life. This is yet another reason I'm happy with this ruling.

 

[Deck Knight]

Fuck the FCC. Now available on live TV.

Too bad the FCC is still going to try and regulate the internet.

 

[cim]

Too bad the FCC is still going to try and regulate the internet.

That's a funny way of saying "preserving net neutrality".

 

[Zach]

Yes well lets enjoy it while we can because the idiots at the FCC will have a much more specific and clear set of rules written up ASAP so that they can prevent any one from hearing big bad curse words, seeing how the court only condemned their current restrictions and not any future attempts to do the same thing more effectively.

 

[Mike B]

What does this have to do at all with the decision?

ItWhether or not Vchips are available outside of North America is obviously completely irrelevant to a US decision. The problem with the law was that it was nothing as Cantab described it. The FCC did not say "you can't say this". Their terms were far broader than that, and incredibly hard to predict. "shit" deals with sexual or excretory organs", but not dick. If it's said by a soldier in a movie then it's exempt for some reason. There are a huge variety of examples. And charging 35 million PER AFFILIATE (so for ABC, FOX, NBC, 35m x 1000) is absolutely ridiculous since you can't predict what gets you fined, and live TV becomes impossible.

Also, the court did not mandate a rating system. It's existed already for decades.

it's a tangent based on the usage of swear words and how they're frowned upon. I thought it would be useless to start a whole new topic on it. But I bet this statement makes no sense at all as well.

 

[cim]

Yes well lets enjoy it while we can because the idiots at the FCC will have a much more specific and clear set of rules written up ASAP so that they can prevent any one from hearing big bad curse words, seeing how the court only condemned their current restrictions and not any future attempts to do the same thing more effectively.

It's not that simple. The FCC can't just make a new policy tomorrow - it has to basically have none of the Court's criticism. No ambiguity, some sort of accommodation for "new words", less ridiculous fines... it's not as simple as "if you say fuck you will get fined 35 million dollars because the court said so". The Court even specifically addressed that making a complete list of words was not a viable solution.

 

[xeroslash]

In other extraordinary fine news, my non profit radio station faced a $250,000 fine for each instance of profanity used on the air before this ruling. One violation and we're gone forever. For a single word, which we can't accurately predict, regardless of context. Play a CD and it turns out when the artist said "Clean" they meant "not at all clean"? If anyone reports it to the FCC, you're fucked for life. This is yet another reason I'm happy with this ruling.

I feel you. I used to broadcast at my university's radio station. Even though I can just press a panic button if shit hits the fan (it's a dump switch that erases the last few seconds of broadcasting), it makes my show sound like crap because it creates gaps of silence, and I always had to tread carefully, especially when the above happens with "clean" CDs. It makes the lives of radio DJs alot easier and removes alot of worry on their end.