FCC to Regulate 'Profane' Speech

The Importance of writes "The FCC has been regulating 'indecent' speech on the airwaves for quite some time, but have been getting a lot more attention recently. For example, during last year's Golden Globe Awards U2's Bono said 'This is really, really f-ing brilliant.' Last October the FCC ruled that was ok. Yesterday, under political pressure, the FCC overruled that decision. However, for the first time, the FCC also ruled that the f-word is not only 'indecent' but also 'profane.' According to this new decision by the FCC, any speech that is grossly offensive, whether or not it has anything to do with sex or excretion, is 'profane.' This is a major step forward (backward?) for FCC censors. My analysis is here."

may I be the first to say

[squarefish]

whether or not it has anything to do with sex or excretion, is 'profane.'

holy fucking shit ;)

Re:may I be the first to say

[wankledot]

Man, you come along and add religion to the mix on that one, excellent work!

my new profane word of choice

[WormholeFiend]

From now on, I will use the word FCC as my favourite swear word.

Here's an example: "This is FCCing brilliant!"

I'll let you guess the exact pronunciation.
-

I'm all out of rhetoric to spew on this one.

[The I Shing]

I can't think of anything to say about this that hasn't been said million, billion times, so I'm just going to dump some Forrest Gump into it.

• Forrest: (voice-over) There was this man, giving a little talk. And for some reason, he was wearing an American flag for a shirt...
• Abbie Hoffman: Now, I'm going to bring up some soldiers that are going to talk about the war, man...
• Forrest: (voice-over) ... and he liked to say the "F" word. A lot. "F" this and "F" that. And every time...
• Abbie Hoffman: ... that war has come home, and we have to stop these politicians...
• Forrest: (voice-over) ... he said "F" word, people, for some reason, well, they'd cheer.

cue tin foil hat.

[Valar]

OMG. How long until Kerry commercials are ruled obscene and banned from the airwaves? Everything is propaganda! Run for it. The cheerios commercials have subliminal ads in them! RRRRAAAAAAAASSSSKKKKKK!!!~~1

Re:really? uhoh...

[DonServo]

Looks like the first line of most of the spam that arrives in my junk folder...

Here in Canada...

[Opalima]

... almost anything goes. Maybe we're more open minded. Maybe we're a little less uptight. Maybe we watch a little too much American TV.

Re:Long overdue FCC!

[negacao]

I don't like your tone of voice, I think I'll sensor you.

[note: this is NOT called irony.]

Re:may I be the first to say

[Damek]

Considering the article talks about how the definition of profane is speech or conduct "irreverent to something held sacred" ... this comment makes total sense. Not only is it a shit (excretion) for fucking (sex), it is also a *holy* shit, and therefore a secred peice of sex-related excrement. To put your winky smily at the end, you are obviouisly treating this sacred poop of copulation with irreverence, and therefore you are being wholly profane. I condemn thee!

Profane!

[jo42]

> My analysis

BZZZZZZT!!!

The word "analysis" contains ANAL.

Therefore the word "analysis", "analyst" and derivatives have been declared indecent & profane and shall be removed from the English language forthwith.

- by Ruling of the FCC

Dyslexic Mind

[toupsie]

I thought this was about "Propane Speech" and there was some bizarre Hank Hill linkage. Aw, well, too much toons in my life.

Re:Major problems ahead....

[Johnny_Law]

Anything anyone can say is offensive to someone.


I am offended you would imply such things! Nothing my children ever say or do is offensive.
/me puts fingers in his ears.

Just in case anyone was offended by this post, this was a joke.

Re:my new profane word of choice

[arcanumas]

In other news, the "fsck" Unix utility has been removed from Unix distributions due to similarity with profane vocabulary. A replacement called JesusLovesYourFilesystem is being developed.

Let me just say this...

[soccerisgod]

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAH

Seriously. We here in Europe can't for the love of god understand what's up with this..first a giant fuss about that ugly nipple and now this. It's just pathetic!

What the FFFFFUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!

[strike2867]

I found ludicrous the Enforcement Bureau's decision that a word that might otherwise be indecent is not indecent or profane merely because it is used as an adjective or expletive.

Newly added words not to be said on tv include: But, As. The American children will now be protected from the horrible mouths of the perverted broadcastors.

Re:may I be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

Better: In God We Thrust

Totally profane, ain't it?

Re:Profane!

[Tibor the Hun]

Well IANAL, but I don't think your argument would stand in court!

Re:The Battle Rages On

[DataCannibal]

You watch the Grammies and expect not to see crap ?

Re:may I be the first to say

[tomhudson]

Considering the article talks about how the definition of profane is speech or conduct "irreverent to something held sacred"

So now the FCC is violating the constitutional seperation of church and state. Way to go. I'd call them a bunch of cock-sucking, mother-fucking piss-ant cunts who don't know shit about fuck-all, with the brains of a tit-mouse, except I don't want to be called profane for using George Carlin's 7 Words You Can Never Say On TV [centric.net]

Ooops, too late ;-)

All right children

[DRUNK_BEAR]

Mod me down if you wish... but why is everyone exaggeratedly swearing in their posts when the article is about censorship. You can say that you disagree without saying three hail maries in the same post while at the same time giving everyone a biology lesson... It just looks very childish to me. Someone expresses an opinion different from the norm and we start stonning him/her... Good example of censorship, right?

I don't have a problem with people swearing if they really want to emphasize their point. Even if it's part of their language. But fucking swearing at every stupid goddamn line just to fucking prove their shitty point sounds a bit ridiculous to me.

Re:may I be the first to say

[kimota]

I was thinking more along the lines of, and I quote,

"Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits"

--Kimota!

Brit TV is poking fun at you...

[rediguana]

sorry its only shockwave, but you might find this British TV commercial rather appropriate...

Swearing [channel4.com]

Enjoy :)

Bad news for Comedy Central

[MarkGriz]

Guess that means we won't be seeing gems like this anymore....

KYLE: Shut-up, fatboy!
CARTMAN: Hey! Don't call me fat, you fuckin' Jew!
MR. GARRISON: Eric! Did you just say the F-word?
CARTMAN: "Jew"?
KYLE: No, he's talkin' about "fuck." You can't say "fuck" in school, you fuckin' fatass.
MR. GARRISON: Kyle!
CARTMAN: Why the fuck not?
MR. GARRISON: Eric!
STAN: Dude, you just said "fuck" again!
MR. GARRISON: Stanley!
KENNY: Fuck.
MR. GARRISON: Kenny!
CARTMAN: What's the big deal? It doesn't hurt anybody. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
MR. GARRISON: How would you like to go see the school counselor?
CARTMAN: How would you like to suck my balls?
KIDS: [gasping]
MR. GARRISON: What did you say?
CARTMAN: Oh, I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Actually, what I said was: [speaking through bullhorn] "How would you like, to suck my balls, Mr. Garrison?"
KYLE: Holy shit, dude.

Re:Profane!

[cyranoVR]

You know, just the other day I realized that I was naming my "Financial Analysis" spreadsheets names "Fin_Anal_Feb02.xls"

Kinda embarassaing :)

Whoops just wrote "ass." Time for a self-report!

Re:Profane!

[Anonymous Coward]

In college I had to take Anal Calc for four semesters.
Man, that was a serious pain in the ass.

Re:may I be the first to say

[SmackCrackandPot]

For a moment, I thought the article read "FCC are to regulate profound speech", but then I realized we already have such a system.

Re:Overreaching their charter

[Tony Hoyle]

It depends on how you say it, and what you mean (ie. do you mean it to hurt another person or simply to express an emotion).

As a christian I say those things in context all the time... I mean, WTF are you going to say if you close the car door on your hand 'oops I appear to have severed a limb?', or 'Fucking hell motherfucker bastard that fucking hurts'.

yeah...

[c0dedude]

I dunno about you guys, but this seems doubleplusgood to me!

Re:This'll get some knees jerking.

[Sloppy]

The fact is that the constant liberal use of profanity is eroding peoples ability to communicate intelligently. It may have been funny when Eddie Murphy took the stage and said the F-word as every other word out of his mouth, at the beginning of his career. But today, it is no longer funny and yet so many people speak like this normally. It is F-ing hard to F-ing talk to or F-ing understand someone's F-ing point when the F-word is F-ing well coming out of their F-ing mouth every other F-ing word.

So you mean, um like, you know, you can't, like, understand communications, when like the speaker totally overuses, like, colloquialisms? Because, like, it's not intelligent communication? Are you like totally for-sure that, like, the problem is really, like, profanity, and not something else, like, general stupidity and lack of, like, public speaking skill?

It is way out of control.

Like, um, does it, like, need to be in control? Is, like, communication performance really a matter for, like, government to be dealing with? I would, like, think that it's in everone's self-interest to, like, maximize their own speaking performance, purely for, like, selfish reasons. They don't, like, need government to give them incentive, ya know? And, like, if someone else, like, talks bad, doesn't that, like, give you a competitive advantage in getting, like, your message out? I say, like, don't worry about idiots being, like, out of control. Dude! Duuuuude!!

You're wrong!

[Gorimek]

The US has more freedom of speech than anywhere else in the world, ever. That's because the First Amendment to the Constitition guarantees it.

The only exception is the things you're not allowed to say. But such a limitation is a small price to pay for unlimited freedom of speech!

Re:may I be the first to say

[aukaru]

I think that Washington D.C. is full of idiots

I know Washington DC is full of idiots. What will it take to make you a true believer?

Re:FCC should outlaw showing illegal stuff on TV.

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you crazy?

There are rapes a-plenty in R rated movies.

The Cell was rated R and that was some seriously fucked up shit-- slowly drowning captives in a water tight cell then bleaching and fucking their corpses. Though other scenes were really beautiful and it had nice costumes.

Re:may I be the first to say

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn straight, I mean what about those of us who believe in Cthulu as the one true god? :)

Re:This'll get some knees jerking.

[DragonMagic]

Shit, your radio came without tuning or power knobs or buttons, too?

Re:Long overdue FCC!

[Anonymous Coward]

* Read a freakin' book! *

Do you realize just how profain most books are?!?!? With no regulation comittee telling me what I can and can't read how am I to know what I should or shouldn't read? Books aren't even rated! My poor defensless child could get his hands on something the likes of 1984 or Fahrenheit 451! Can you honestly say you want your children reading that kind of antisocial smut? I can't be there 24/7 to make sure my child doesn't read something questionable.

We need a committee to regulate what can and can't be printed. Until one exists I don't think we can morally allow our children to read books.

NR

Re:may I be the first to say

[Scrameustache]

I know Washington DC is full of idiots. What will it take to make you a true believer?

When they stop letting new idiots in because the place is full.

Re:FCC should outlaw showing illegal stuff on TV.

[Lord Kano]

Oh please not the "for the children" shit...

I'd much rather my kid was exposed to a handful of swearwords and see the occasional brest, then be shown TV shows that makes them think everyone's a criminal so it must be OK.

Damn, too late.

Ok, my question then becomes, would you rather explain to your child why the bad man shot someone or why the bad woman had a penis her mouth?

LK