Slashdot Mirror
FCC Indecency Ruling Struck Down
arbitraryaardvark writes "Reuters reports that the 2nd circuit has struck down the FCC's recent ruling on indecency, in a case brought by Fox. The court said the U.S. Federal Communications Commission was 'arbitrary and capricious' in setting a new standard for defining indecency. 'Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin angrily retorted that he found it "hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that 'sh*t' and 'f@ck' are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience ... If we can't restrict the use (of the two obscenities) during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want," Martin said in a statement.' No word yet on whether the agency will appeal.
I thought fox was a republican lapdog?
My blog
How exactly did the guy pronounce "f@ck"?
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
"Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want,"
If I'm not mistaken, thats the whole idea of freedom of speech right?
I'm god, but it's a bit of a drag really...
Supreme Court to FCC: "Fuck off"
Actually, one of the most amusing parts of the ruling was the court citing the fact that the words can't be that bad if George W Bush and Dick Cheney use them (to Tony Blair and Patrick Leahy respectively).
I am officially gone from
What he's leaving out is that the case was over the "fleeting" use of such words, such as during live events when something accidentally slips through. If a pre-recorded show has the words in there and it is deliberately broadcasted, the indecency rules still apply.
The problem is that currently, the FCC sometimes enforces the standard of "fleeting use," and sometimes it doesn't. The courts are just saying that it needs to be standardized and rationally applied.
I think it would sound something like F at chik or.. fatchick?
s/©//g
I believe it's pronounced as FSHIFT2CK!
Badass Resumes
They pander to the far right, too.
You remember that little warning at the beginning of the show? This show contains coarse language, sexual content, and violence? Yeah, that means don't let your kids watch it. That wasn't too difficult I hope!
They are only words. Banning words is what gives the words power. My wife and I allow have told our kids that they are allowed to "cuss" around their friends and we don't have a problem with it. We'd like them to not cuss around us, but it is not "banned." We have asked that they not cuss around other adults, but it is not "banned." It is their own choice.
Our kids understand that the use of those words simply is a sign to people of how dumb and inarticulate you are. I don't have a problem with using those words, but I choose not to (except when one-on-one with my wife... go figure). I am 100% sure that my kids have never heard me use profanity, but I am 100% sure that they hear it every day in other places. I have no problem with others using profanity at all. Sometimes it is funny, mostly it says an awful lot about the person using it. It is just words.
Anyway, we have never heard any cussing from our kids and have never heard any comments from other parents/teachers.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Look how he describes it not as a federal court, but as a "New York court" in order to exploit the biases of the rest of the country.
Yeah, because there is nothing cooler than hearing a two year old kid say "Fuck".
God forbid that our poor children's virgin ears should hear from their TV the same words that they hear every day at school. Or that they should ever see a *gasp* boobie. Oh no, that's horrible and will surely corrupt our youth.
Now, showing live video from the Virginia Tech massacre (you know, the camera phone that recorded the shootings from outside) or showing massive explosions and horrific, gory deaths, that's fine. Totally fine. We want to breed killers so we can send them to fight our wars... er... defend Freedom(TM)
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Neitzsche
Today's starting off pretty well--first the RIAA gets a small smackdown, and now this. It would be nice to live in a country where parents are actually expected to make decisions for themselves about what their kids watch. As a previous poster stated, we already have the annoying warnings about the content of upcoming programs--that means that if you don't want your kids absorbing and regurgitating TV filth, then don't let them watch it.
u-bend
Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin angrily retorted that he found it "hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that 'sh*t' and 'f@ck' are fine to say on broadcast television...
No, he mentioned the words shit and fuck (see the article). It's ironic that someone felt the need to alter the (highly relevant) quotation in this supposedly uncensored medium.
If President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney can blurt out vulgar language, then the government cannot punish television stations for broadcasting the same words in similarly fleeting contexts. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/
What's latin for "pwned?"
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
No, no, no. You're forgetting that the fleeting use of "obscenities" actually physically harms children under 12. Too much exposure and their eardrums will literally melt. And while their eardrums will eventually grow back, the buildup of melted eardrum material will cause long-term hearing loss if left untreated.
So, public communication should be limited by government fiat to that which is acceptable for a two year old?
A Human Right
While I tend to believe that the first amendment is more to protect our right to express any IDEA we want rather than say any specific word we want at any time, I still think that the FCC limiting this shit is stupid.
Here's a better idea.
Parent: "Little Bobby, that show/movie/whatever is inappropriate, let's watch this instead." Then change the channel.
or perhaps
Parent: "Little Bobby, I know they say those words on TV but those are actual bad things to say and some people find them very offensive. You shouldn't say those words."
You know, kind of like how parents are supposed to raise their children and teach them the difference between right and wrong.
I've never understood why you can watch someone get shot in a drama in prime time, someone could say something like "I'd like to put a fork into your eyeball" in prime time, yet a single word like the F-Bomb can't be said?
What is the actual purpose of "bad" words? Why not just consider that bad words don't exist and everyone can say any word they want and we just not "have a cow" over it?
Seems to me we're taught to take exception to the words. It's a learned behavior. How about just not learning it in the 1st place?
Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want
And the problem with this lies where? We do too much to shelter our children, it's a disservice to them from us who are supposed to be raising adults. Let them hear the words, learn their intent and meaning, with a parent to teach them when it is and isn't appropriate to use them.
*WE* are the parents, not the FCC. How dare they be so arrogant as to take the roll of parenting my children for me.
( 7, 5 and 3 year old girls )
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Hey Kevin Martin! It's not that the FCC can't stop swear words from primetime TV, it's that the FCC has to define what constitutes a swear word (here's the hard part) BEFORE they can slap a fine on a TV station. You can't be intentionally vague with the definition of indecency and then come down hard (to the tune of millions of $$$) on the TV stations who have no idea where the line is drawn.
Kevin buddy, write down what indecency is, and everyone will comply. It's a neat idea...give it a try.
Xesdeeni
And since this is a "free country" you will have every right and opportunity to NOT WATCH the television. You and your children can do something like READ A BOOK, or GO FOR A WALK, or LEARN TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, or any number of perfectly useful activities that do not include glotzing some retarded screen full of disinformation and jejune entertainment that reinforces a false consciousness that convinces people to act and live in a way that fosters the parasitic tapeworm economy.
Feh.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Perhaps that 2 year old's parents should do their fucking job and fucking monitor what the fucking kid watches instead of putting them in front of the fucking television and walking away. Or perhaps people can grow the fuck up and realize that fuck is just a fucking word and it isn't going to hurt anyone unless the fuckers let it hurt themselves.
Or is it the other way around; the Republicans are Fox's bitch. Either way, you're trying to be logical about politics, you yourself are being illogical.
Republicans are supposed to be political conservatives. Political conservatives are supposed to be against government interference in private lives. Terri Schaivo, abortion rights, gay marriage, etc. show that they care more about their 'base', the social conservatives, than they care about political philosophy.
And the fact that Fox has been leading the charge when it comes to smutty, sensationalist television, which you think would offend the religious right, and they they get a free ride from the Republican Party because they're such whores about supporting the NeoCons is just another example of the hypocritical politics we have these days. Another reason why religion and politics are a bad, but historical, combination.
I'd love to support the Republicans (fiscal conservatives, political conservatives), but I don't dare support the whores and hypocrites in power right now.
Best regards.
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_6063897
So he thinks that every form of the versatile word "fuck" is inherently sexual. I keep wondering, is he fucking serious? That's a fucking ridiculous stance to take! If he is in charge of censoring our airwaves, things have gotten pretty fucked up.
As much as we kill it around here, we have a love for its strength. You can say exactly how you feel and be sure everyone knows how you feel. Unfortunetly, that sometimes requires the use of taboo explatives. By removing the taboo we remove their strength. I'm not sure about you but when the server crashes "Oh gosh and golly gee!" Does not express my feelings at the time. Then again, I don't want small children to hear me as I'm working on said pieces of crap.
Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
Most of these words are in common usage on the street.
Shit is a particularly stupid example since we use it every day. It's like a rated "G" word which is peculiarly forbidden.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Well, it's hard to tell in black-and-white...
r mer-rat-imp-cockatrice-floatingeye.
But I'd say "cat-you-cockatrice-kobold".
Then again, you can't say "cock", so that should be "cat-you-c@ckatrice-kobold"
And then we get "cat-you-cockactrice-you-cockatrice-kobold-ant-fa
Not censorship isn't about free speech -- it's about avoiding recursive pronounciation problems with censored nouns in the nethack/adom languages, as any geek should know.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
That idea works GREAT with a 4 year old.
If your kid isn't old enough to ignore stupid stuff they see on TV, they should not be watching it without your active supervision PERIOD. You people are fixating on lame stuff like adults swearing and ignoring the more insidious things that MORONS like Valenti wouldn't even catch. The gross stuff is actually easy to deal with. It's the subtle stuff and trivialized misbehaivor of minors (often considered cute rather than dangerosu) that you have to watch out for.
Fuck is not a problem. Disney Children's movies with the main character casually committing felonies with no apparent consequences are a problem.
This isn't about children. This is about uptight old crones that will have a conniption fit if you violate their sheltered puritanical outlook on life.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Here's an even better idea
"Hey, bobby you fat fuck go and get me another beer and then piss off out somewhere 'cos I can see your mums gagging for it right now."
"Right then you filthy whore lets see what you're packing under that dress. Eh, I've told you once bobby - Fuck Off, don't make me come and smack you one you lazy little bastard."
Because a lot of people don't want to believe that we have poverty, violence and ignorance in this country because our social systems like public schools, medical care and social services are failing. It is much easier to say it is because there is violence in video games, swearing on television and gays trying to get married than admit that we as a people need to either make some changes or else accept the fact that a significant portion of our population is falling towards third world status.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
According to Eric Idle, it is dedicated to the FCC, and if they broadcast it, it will cost a quarter of a million dollars. Have a listen. :)
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
the opinion is here in pdf. here online commentary includes volokh
The problem is that the Republican party, as of the last decade or so, isn't precisely conservative at all. The Republicans have abandoned just about every "conservative" value or position, including small government (or at least opposing its increase), states' rights, individual freedoms, etc. (About the only thing an actual 'conservative' and a modern Republican would agree on is their stance on gun control.)
They are no longer, and haven't been for some time, "conservative." In fact they seem to want to change quite a lot. They're probably best described as 'authoritarian,' particularly on the social side. And IMO, "social conservatives" aren't conservatives at all; the title is a complete misnomer. They're not trying to prevent some sort of drastic change to the social fabric, they're trying to induce a drastic change. They are, by many objective definitions, actually quite radical. (Of course, they tend not to think so -- they prefer to think of themselves as trying to take the country back to some 1950s idyll that never existed outside their own imaginations.)
The actual conservative wing of the Republican party died with Barry Goldwater; what remains has nothing to do with conservatism and everything to do with pushing a transformative agenda. It's just a different transformative agenda than what the more far-left elements of the Democratic party want.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
"If we can't restrict the use (of the two obscenities) during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want."
Good. Fuck you. They should be able to say anything they want, whenever they want. Read the First Amendment sometime.
There's a reason I despise the Republican party. If you guessed "stripping away our constitutional rights for the sake of catering to the moral majority/religious right" you win.
Care about privacy? Read this!
I'm a parent, so I have the right to say this:
The only people who can tell my kids what to watch (or what not to watch) are my wife, and myself.
The government has no business deciding what is decent and what is not. If you aren't enough of a parent to decide what is appropriate for your kids, you shouldn't have had them. Why do my tax dollars have to raise your kids?
If you can't regulate what your kids watch, how are you going to keep them out of the liquor cabinet, or prevent them from taking your car without permission, later in life?
Parents need to realize that raising kids is their responsibility, not the government's.
-ted