Ken Burns' WWII Documentary Puts PBS in FCC's Aim

[ignatzmouse]

PBS chief wary of FCC fine print
'War' could test indecency rule

By Barry Garron, The Hollywood Reporter

"Among the many issues facing the newly appointed president of PBS is the possibility that public TV stations could face crippling fines from the FCC for running Ken Burns' upcoming World War II documentary "The War."

Paula Kerger, who took the helm as president and CEO of PBS in March, told reporters at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour Wednesday that she tried without success in meetings with the five members of the FCC to get assurances that salty language heard from servicemen and others in the docu would not run afoul of the FCC, given the commission's recent crackdown on indecency."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002913247

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One of the vital elements to fascism is a strictly maintained vision of purity. I suppose the threat is that in WWII we were fighting *against* fascism.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. The right-wing ninnies are going after Ken Burns now???

:crazy:

[LostinVA]

2. Oh good god -- this was solved with airing "Saving Private Ryan"

[RoseMead]

3. How I long for the day

when this bullshit stops and reality is restored. Don't we have enough fake history already? Do we have to create more to appease the the dirty word police?

Soldiers use naughty language. I use naughty language. So what?

Dear FCC: Go fuck yourself, you fucking fuckers.

[KharmaTrain]

4. Sorry...There's A Provision For Airing Such Material

Two things come to mind here...

First...a documentary is considered a News program...not an Entertainment one. It's supposed to be realistic and if its using archival footage that has colorful language, so be it...that's part of the news-worthiness of the footage. In fact, there's an FCC waiver in this case. In 1974, I worked for an NPR station that aired a reading of Nixon's White House tapes...with the expletive delteds included. At the time there was a similar "scare" put out there about airing the swear words, but the head of NPR pulled out the FCC rule that exempted any fines for a newsworthy event...a factual and direct reproduction of an archive (which those tapes and any WWII film, letters or recordings would be).

Next...there's also an exemption for airing a "work of art" in its entirety. PBS shows many shows that feature Michaelangelo's "David" in it and you can clearly see his "scholong". Now why isn't the network fined? Cause they're showing a work of art as it was intended to be shown. The same rule applies to how NBC or ABC (I forgot which network) aired Schindler's List without editing the language or violence in there...and that stations also used to air the Deer Hunter and Platoon uncut.

Last thought...Burns is PBS Gold. They run his shows during fundraising drives that bring in millions to affiliated stations. A controversy gets more eyes to watch and the more eyes that watch, the more phones that could ring. Nice PR move.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. They hate the "nanny state" but love the "Nunny state".

Hold out your hands to get them whacked by Sister Chastity and your mouth washed out with soap by Sister Purity.

[shadowknows69]

6. The language thing is hilarious

I can watch any movie on tv and see: everything of a boob but a nipple, headshot kills and just about any violent scene you can see on celluloid. Still bleeping, or worse, replacing all those four letter words.

[w4rma]

7. Our government is run by Nazis, why would they want folks to learn about

World War II? Heck a right-wing TV pundit (O'Riely) 3 times over the past few months slandered 82 US servicemen who had been lined up and excecuted by Nazis after surrendering. He called our servicement war criminals and had said the servicemen were the ones who excecuted the Nazis.