I just don’t get it. I don’t get what is acceptable and what is unacceptable for TV, especially cable TV. The more I watch different channels, different shows, and different genres, I got more and more frustrated and confused. Let me give you a few examples.
I was watching the best of Eminem on MTV2, and his song, “The Real Slim Shady” comes on. You know the one: “Will the real slim shady please stand up; please stand up; please stand up.” And as it goes on they mute out various words, but then they mute the word “clitoris.” Last I checked, “clitoris” was a technical, medical term, and not crude slang. The same thing goes for “penis” (though I can’t think of examples currently).
Then, I am watching the movie “Showtime” with Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro on TBS. He says “Bullshit” probably 3 times in the first hour. I have also heard “asshole” used on cable TV. Now last I checked, those were slang and pretty much unacceptable by FCC standards. Yet, these stations had no problem airing them. Also, I hear songs that use the phrase “God damn” but God is muted while damn rings out.
Let me say, I don’t have a problem with censoring or not censoring these words. I will admit that I am desensitized to them at this point. I But what I do have a problem with is the hypocrisy of another government agency. They came down so hard on CBS for the Janet Jackson incident. They kick Howard Stern off the air for his words and antics. Yet these other things go along unchallenged.
Just be consistent. Either go for clean air, and take out the “swear words” or let them all go. And don’t go editing out real words while leaving in slang. It makes no sense! If someone can explain why there are different standards and why some things are allowed and ignored while others are so stringently regulated, I am listening. Oh well, I guess if I just watch PAX all the time I have nothing to worry about.
5 comments:
I believe, though I could be wrong that Cable channels are not under FCC censorship rules at all. They do it volentarily. The only stations that are regulated are the ones that are available over the air waves.
Any television that you pay for personally that is not available 'as a pervasive, unaviodable media' (as in radio, off air TV, bill boards, etc.) are only regulated by what the station believes that people will put up with.
The Janet Jackson thing was so big because it was a free to air network that it happened on.
Bunce
hey sam, its sara. i finally read that thing on here that you wanted me to read. it was quality.
Bunce - I see your point about the free thing. But then how does ABC get away with their "Explicit nudity" on NYPD Blue? I mean if anything is vulgar and morally intolerable, it has to be a big fat naked guy, right?
NYPD Blue has a disclaimer at the begining. A football game does not.
And yes, any fat naked guy is morally reprehensible. If you have to be naked at least let us see your bones.
Bunce
umm Bunce...yikes....
Post a Comment