The cases at issue were brought by a radical right-wing Bush administration FCC, who wanted almost to criminalize even incidental, fleeting curses or transient glimpses of nudity.The history of FCC policing of broadcast profanity and nudity arguably got its serious start in 1978 when Pacifica Radio aired George Carlin's famous monologue "(bleep) (bleep) (bleep) (bleep) (bleep) (bleep) (bleep)" where each (bleep) was a different obscenity or profanity. In today's ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg expressed a wish that the Pacifica ruling be overturned as having been wrongly decided, but that didn't happen, fuckin' goddammit.
AFTERTHOUGHT: and I was so looking forward to FCC sanctions on commercials by candidate Joe the Plumber for rear-view shots of the plumber at work...
A sensible decision. In celebration here's one of my favourite Carlin pieces
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/N0ee4wqZvf8
Thanks, jams; I'll listen to it when the office is less crowded. :-)
ReplyDeleteI am blocking on the name of Bush's FCC chair, but he was rabid, toxic, choose your own favorite word. In addition to levying half-million-dollar fines for incidental cursing and a $1.5 million fine for Janet Jackson's breast-flash at a Super Bowl halftime, he also spent much of his time in office in a personal vendetta against Bill Moyers and a more general grudge against PBS and NPR. Fortunately, Moyers was smarter, and survived the purge attempt, and PBS and NPR are still in business. But if I ever meet Bush's FCC guy in person, he will go away from our encounter with a broken jaw. At least!