If you can't keep your sailor mouth clean, have heart. You can continue plopping your kids in front of the TV during the day for some curse-free entertainment . . . for now anyway.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted five to four to uphold the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) hold over "foul language" on television between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The issue came up in regards to "fleeting expletives," the one-off f-bomb dropped on a live show (rather than cussing worked into a scripted program).
So is this good for parents and kids? Maybe.
ABC, CBS and Fox, who have been trying to avoid fines for cussing on their networks, are headed back to yet another federal court to fight their fines on the basis of free speech. And Justice Clarence Thomas, who voted with the majority, has written an opinion regarding what he calls “questionable
viability” of two FCC regulations that relate to this topic. Voting against the FCC, Justice John Paul Stevens went so far as to call it "ironic" that the FCC goes after words relating to "sex" and "excrement" (hmmm, wonder which words he's talking about there, don'tcha?) even as “commercials broadcast during prime-time
hours frequently ask viewers whether they too are battling
erectile dysfunction or are having trouble going to the
bathroom.”
I try to reign in my potty mouth around my daughter (I try to reign it in period, but hey, life happens). But is a one-off dirty word on TV really that bad? They're just as likely to hear it in the grocery store or the school bus. I sat in our favorite deli eating grilled cheese sandwiches just last week while a group of four twenty-something guys one table over did everything but smear us in the s--t they couldn't stop bringing up.
And Justice Stevens, I'm with you. I don't want to explain erectile dysfunction to my three-year-old just yet. Somehow, explaining what flies out of a cow's butt doesn't seem quite as bad as that.
Image: WriteForBlogs
Related Posts:
