PBS Feels FCC Chill On Censorship

Shadow Wrought writes "The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting on PBS censoring one of its upcoming drama shows, Cop Shop, due to the chilling effect of the most recent FCC rulings on indecency. Star Richard Dreyfuss offered these choice words as part of a prepared statement, 'It is inescapably censorship under guidelines imposed after the fact by those who are in temporary political power, and so it should be treated as what it is -- a real-world moral and ethical battle with grimly wrongheaded, un-American types who play pick and choose when they define our freedoms of speech and religion as it fits their particular political needs.'"

Re:Here we go ....

[YankeeInExile]

let me trump myself. 5. Profit.

just so you know

[vingilot]

They wanted to say "Fuck"

Hope that helps.

It takes a brit...

[Rei]

It takes a Brit [pythonline.com] to say what we feel about this sort of stuff ;)

To Paraphrase Benjamin Franklin:

[RatBastard]

"Boobs are proof that God exists and want's us to be happy".

Another Public Broadcasting Landmark Threatened..

[idontgno]

The upcoming Seasame Street episode brought to you by the letters "F" and "U", and the number "69".

And you should hear Elmo go when you piss him off!

Richard Dreyfuss

[bhsx]

"The FCC chairman is going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you on the ass!"
Thank you, thank you.

Re:Another Public Broadcasting Landmark Threatened

[mothz]

And you should hear Elmo go when you piss him off!
That's nothing compared to when you piss on him.

Re:Wrong poster child

[kelzer]

I suspect that the star and producer have no higher goal than propping up their show's ratings.

Yeah, so they could charge more for the commercials. Greedy opportunistic PBS bastards! Money grubbing wh... ummm, commercials... PBS...?, uh, nevermind.

And so it begins....

[Giant Ape Skeleton]

The Great Network TV Profanity Drought of 2004.

Thank goodness for cable!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....

[billmaly]

This is all Janet Jackson's fault. Thanks Miss Jackson, Janet cuz you not nasty, for ruining the show for all of us with the gratuitous display of your breast that no one really wanted to see in the first place. You, madam, touched off this mess, and it was so necessary. You provided fuel to the Christian right's fire, and for that, I'll....well.....I guess I'll never listen to Rhythm Nation again, so TAKE THAT you hussy!!!

Re:To Paraphrase Benjamin Franklin:

[Minwee]

And apo'strophe's exi'st to prove that there i's an 's coming up.

Whipping 'em out...

[panicboy]

So the fact that they did not choose to speak extemporaneously indicates some sort of behind-the-scenes plan? The President reads prepared statements all the time; he doesn't seem to have a plan.

Couldn't they...

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Just get the 3 people who watch PBS to sign a waiver or something?

They Came For The Hackneyed Plots

[Hrolf]

What a loss to the world, that Yet Another Cop Show That Contrives Controversy For Ratings (YACSTCCFR) will be censored. Why didn't they step in years ago and save us from Dennis Franz's ass?

Re:Netcraft: PBS dieing

[LightningBolt!]

>>Talk about a made up controversy.

>Why not - look what it did for Michael Moore.

Yeah, the war in Iraq wasn't at all controversial until Michael Moore came along.

Re:BBC reporting about Dick Cheney

[RatBastard]

Because you lot (I'm assuming you're a Brit due to the BBC link, and I apologize if I am wrong) sent all of the Puritans over here in the 1600's. Thanks heaps. It's been a pantload of fun dealing with the screwed up morality they've left us.

Re:Here we go ....

[sploo22]

So a three-month-old baby has a chance of accidentally conceiving each time it breastfeeds? Wow, you learn something new every day.

Re:Here we go ....

[An. (Coward)]

I just hope that twenty years from now, today's children look back on all the things their elders did in the name of protecting them.

And then beat the shit out of them.

Let's moderate opposing viewpoints as troll

[jgardn]

Hey guys! I got a great idea! Rather than debate the issues, let's just moderate opposing viewpoints as "troll"!

If this isn't censorship, then what is?

Re:Where are the lies?

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting that you choose to quote Moore himself as proof that the movie is true.. Sorta like quoting Hitler to back up his own policies as being correct.

However, Hitchens [msn.com] would love to disagree with you and the propagandist Moore.

Re:Here we go ....

[Luigi30]

Or better:

[with everyone in Bart's class there, and many adults]

Mrs. Lovejoy: "Don't talk about S-E-X in front of the C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N!"

Krusty: "Sex Cauldron!? I thought that place closed down!"

Re:Decency is Appropriate

[Frequanaut]

Dear jgardn: There were some spelling errors in your wonderful letter. As such, please note the corrections below.

I'm sorry folks, but there is a line, and it is called "censorship".

Pornography is enjoyable. I think any sane person agrees with that. What people do with their life that doesn't affect other people should be left alone. If someone doesn't like pornography they don't have to watch it. It pays both men and women well. No one is forced into the life of a porn star. It glamorizes sex. That sounds like a good thing to me.

I guess if you believe that sex is something that should be hiddenm not talked about and generally repressed you probably have a problem with pornography. If our nation turns into one where the majority repress their sexual urges and pretend they don't enjoy it it's going to lead to some pretty messed up people. I think the taliban would approve. Once Americans start behaving like the Taliban, we're going to have some serious problems.

Lewd talk and foul language have no place in public discourse. You can express yourself better if you use clean language. Fortunately, lewd talk and fould language aren't necessarily pornography and anyone who attempts to link the two is probably being disingenuous. But, there is no need to use sailor talk in front of women or children, or even men for that matter, unless of course your the president talking about a reporter, or the vice president talking to a senator.
Baby Jesus cries when people make false analagies such as: "It is a crime to defecate in public places, so it should be a crime to defecate foul language with your mouth in public places."

I know this may peeve you so-called "Religious wackos" and Taliban supporters out there, but let's face the facts. America was founded on the separation of church and state. So called religious principles, rights that supposedly come from God are subjective at best. After all our forefathers left England because the current religious based govermnent would persecute them for not behaving exactly as they would like. Those rights include free speech, but some people want to take that away too! You have as much a responsibility to excercise your freedom of speech as you do to vote. (For now at least)

And not comparing this with the totalitarian regimes in places like Afghanistan and Iraq (until not to long ago, thanks to President Bush), is just stupid.
We have been able to maintain a good balance, and if we go too far the *EITHER* way, the public is free to correct the course of events with their votes. Or just go knock a few thousand people off the voter rolls in a tightly contested state.

Re:News For Nerds, Stuff that MATTERS

[maxpublic]

Rights to privacy, free speech and freedom of information are core values here.

Except fo the Europeans among us. They've given all of that up, apparently in exchange for the wonders of the metric system.

Max

To quote Bill:

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

"Breasts are proof God doesn't want babies to starve, and that all men suffer from an oedipus complex."

Re:just so you know

[Anonymous Coward]

> They wanted to say "Fuck"

Good enough for the Senate floor, good enough for TeeVee.

Oh yeah big shot?

[op00to]

' replaces a letter

What does ' replace in ...

John's bike
Jill's bike
3M's new product?

Take THAT bad-natured grammar naziry!

Administeration's response.

[xs650]

This just in...

Cheney, representing the Administeration, offered a response to Richard Dreyfuss's charges.

"Go fuck yourself Dreyfuss"

Re:Here we go ....

[Martin Wolf]

Those other countries mostly don't call themselves "The Land of the Free".

It's getting so that ...

[Elias Israel]

It's getting so that one can scarcely hear oneself think over the din of Liberals loudly proclaiming how they've been censored.

(Hint for the irony-impaired: think before you mod.)

Soon You Won’t Even Be Able To Post

[Anonymous Coward]

The FCC and gang is just a bunch of bast....

Sorry, we must interrupt this post due to graphical language that may not be acceptable to all viewing audiences. We now return you to the remainder of the post.

And that's all I have to say about that!

How sad it is....

[Anonymous Coward]

... when people's idea of what constitutes a violation of free speech comes down to being stopping from saying "Fuck" on television. If saying "Fuck" is so pivotal to the show that telling them to bleep it out would somehow distort the message then the writers of that show are no talent hacks and deserve to be censored if only to spare the rest of us from their schlock. A truly talented writer or director would work around this hurdle and make something memorable. Someone already brought up Monty Python so I'll use them again as an example: having little or no budget restricted them from using more expensive props and sets. Much had to be improvised and then left up to the audience to appreciate. The Holy Grail would have been much different had the budget been larger. George Lucas is another example: give a man everything he needs and put no obstacles in front of him and you'll end up with something far inferior than if you actually made him work.

Re:I Don't Believe the /. Reaction

[Anonymous Coward]

"Go fuck yourself."

Conservatives are in the majority.

You stupid little jerk.