Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Fleeting Profanity
A federal court has ruled that "fleeting expletives" should not be judged as indecent speech. This ruling includes comments made by Bono during NBC's broadcast of the "Golden Globes" in 2003, in which he used the phrase: "fucking brilliant."
I hope this ruling loses on appeal to the Supreme Court. Not unlike the British judge the other day who said "What's a website?" -- I think these federal judges have never heard of tape-delay (actually a digital delay device) where networks can easily snip out offensive words.
Live TV is not necessarily live, and when it is, it's some fool's choice. Broadcast TV is a guest in people's living rooms. Cable has forced broadcast to be more raw, alas, but there's a reason why those remaining 4 words of the original 7 words you cannot say on television are still there: They are incredibly vulgar.
To those who would argue, "You know, you could turn it off! Your set has an off switch!" -- that's the same as poisioning your city's drinking water and then claiming, "You know, you could drink something else! There's plenty of bottled water, you cheap bastard." Regretably, that line is just fine in broadcast primetime these days.
I hope this ruling loses on appeal to the Supreme Court. Not unlike the British judge the other day who said "What's a website?" -- I think these federal judges have never heard of tape-delay (actually a digital delay device) where networks can easily snip out offensive words.
Live TV is not necessarily live, and when it is, it's some fool's choice. Broadcast TV is a guest in people's living rooms. Cable has forced broadcast to be more raw, alas, but there's a reason why those remaining 4 words of the original 7 words you cannot say on television are still there: They are incredibly vulgar.
To those who would argue, "You know, you could turn it off! Your set has an off switch!" -- that's the same as poisioning your city's drinking water and then claiming, "You know, you could drink something else! There's plenty of bottled water, you cheap bastard." Regretably, that line is just fine in broadcast primetime these days.
