Last month, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's decision to prohibit "fleeting expletives" from broadcast airwaves. It was a 5-4 ruling that stems from a few incidents where celebrities such as Bono, Cher and Nicole Ritchie have used expletives on live broadcast shows. The articles also referred to a radio station that aired George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” skit. This ruling will allow the FCC to fine broadcast stations when such incidents occur.
I found two articles on the subject one from Fox News. com and one from the Wall Street Journal. Both articles state the FCC proposed this because "the foul language aired during prime time generated a record number of complaints from viewers--many of whom were watching with their children."
I have two major concerns with this ruling. First parents should be held accountable for what their children watch. It should be no surprise to any parent that celebrities can be very political and expressive. They are not afraid to use expletives to get their point across or just to be funny, and most of the time they do so on award shows. If it is such a concern don’t allow the child to watch it or record it and preview it before the child watches it. And how can you complain about George Carlin? Hello, he is known for his foul language. If you don’t like it don’t listen to it!
Second concern, the FCC needs to think about if these few isolated incidents are enough to go through all this trouble and to pass a rule that infringes on the First Amendment. Also how can they choose to limit the broadcasters when the cable and internet are not prohibited?
Overall my point is this we all have choices to watch or listen to other things that do not express this type of language, so if you don’t agree change the channel. Also unfortunately these types of words are everywhere, school, the playground or wherever so children are going to hear them. It is the parents’ responsibility to teach their children that it is inappropriate language and a type of language they should not use.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you! It shouldn't be up to the FCC or the government at all to regulate what is broadcast. Parents who complain, may need to take a closer look at the job of parenting that they are doing. It's like allowing your kid to watch a horro movie and then complaining that it was to scary and that they need to tone the "scariness" down.
ReplyDelete