Soldiers’ Words May Test PBS Language Rules (America's become too PC)

[Roland99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/arts/television/22pbs.html?ei=5065&en=0138f41b3bd4b616&ex=1154145600&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

The PBS documentarian Ken Burns has been working for six years on “The War,” a soldier’s-eye view of World War II, and those who have seen parts of the 14-plus hours say they are replete with salty language appropriate to discussions of the horrors of war.

...

A new Public Broadcasting Service policy that went into effect immediately when it was issued on May 31 requires producers whose shows are broadcast before 10 p.m. to adhere to tough editing requirements when it comes to coarse language, to comply with tightened rulings on broadcast indecency by the Federal Communications Commission.

Most notably, PBS’s deputy counsel, Paul Greco, wrote in a memo to stations, it is no longer enough simply to bleep out offensive words audibly when the camera shows a full view of the speaker’s mouth. From now on, the on-camera speaker’s mouth must also be obscured by a digital masking process, a solution that PBS producers have called cartoonish and clumsy.

In addition, profanities expressed in compound words must be audibly bleeped in their entirety so that viewers cannot decipher the words. In the past, PBS required producers to bleep only the offensive part of the compound word.

Gee, when the f*bleep*k did that p*bleepe of s*bleep*t "new Public Broadcasting Service policy" go into effect?

It's ok to show the bombs blowing up buildings from afar, it's ok to broadcast blatant lies from the WH, it's ok to root on death and destruction but, *GASP*, actually show or say anything real...


The horror.... the horror.... the horror....

[Reverend_Smitty]

1. That's just fucked up!

I think it is virtually impossible to describe the horrors of a war using words like dang and fudge and the digitally blanking out of the mouth is just the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Chances are if your kid is not old enough to hear course language then he or she is probably not old enough to be watching movies about war. It's not profane or pornographic, it's simply a frank re-telling of a hellish war...lets be grown ups about this please!

[Recursion]

2. Haven't you figured out GOP "logic" yet?

Doing anything is OK, but saying that you're doing it isn't. Just like somehow passing crippling tax cuts for the wealthy isn't class warfare, but mentioning the fact that they are doing it is.

[flyarm]

13. don't say fuck..but its ok to fuck the people of the middle east..

and bomb them back to the stone age...

rush those bombs to kill more..you sick pathetic fundies..but do not say fuck while you are at it..

i hate this what this country has become now..just hate it..

its just more and more ways to strip us of our rights..and we sit doing nothing about it...but type on a typrwriter!

fly

[DRoseDARs]

3. Oh the huge manatee! Naughty words and naked boobies!

Quick, someone put some clean, wholesome images of dead terrists on the screen! Distract! Distract!

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[smokey nj]

4. I can see their point, everyone knows how popular Ken Burns'

documentaries are with the little ones. :sarcasm:

[SoCalDem]

5. Ken Burns might have to sign a deal with HBO or Showtime

...and the networks wonder where all their viewers went??

[OneBlueSky]

7. that's one possibility . . . if he's tied to PBS, he might instead . . .

simply insist that his program(s) be broadcast after the ten o'clock witching hour . . .

[oscar111]

6. freedom? free world? or Censors in place now. nt

xxxxxx

[man4allcats]

8. Ain't that some shit?! n/t

[sgxnk]

9. cable

that's what cable is for

don't have all them pesky restrictions

[Roland99]

11. For now. The FCC has made waves of late about going after cable, too!!

[sgxnk]

16. that is absurd

that sux. any links?

[Roland99]

17. From over a year ago but you get the idea what the Puritans want to do.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64548-2005Mar1.html


Ah, here's what I was looking for:

The FCC's cable crackdown
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/08/30/fcc_indecency/index.html

[sgxnk]

18. that's silly

i am probably more libertarian than 90% + of left or right wingers, and i think this stuff is stupid

the great thing about cable is that the FCC should BUTT THE #$(#$(#$ OUT

nekkidness, swearing, violence, whatever

if it's on cable, the FCC shouldn't have a say

i really hate nannystate govt (tm)

[LynzM]

12. So dumb. SO dumb.

Fucking uptight America needs to get over its paranoia of profanity and nudity, since we're all *so* accepting of violence. :mad:

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. I'm not sure even PBS would bleep out the word "piece"...

NT

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Soldiers never, ever, swear. Perish the thought.

I never heard a single obscenity uttered in the whole four years I spent in the Marine Crotch..er, Marine Corps. We were all psalm singing young gentlemen who spent our time writing letters home to mom and the girl next door in between prayer meetings.

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. The FCC is a joke...

pretty much every other advanced Western country allows nudity, profanity, etc on television; this wouldn't even be an issue in the UK or Europe. Fucking Puritans.

[Bluebear]

20. PC doesn't refer to cuss words, though, does it?

I thought it was more like referring to someone as physically challenged instead of a 'cripple', for instance.