Nooo! Not my virgin ears!
Boing Boing reports that Government Attic has just gotten copies of a fistful of FCC complaints about popular shows. Among the shows? Of course, The Daily Show. (note: PDF document after link contains not-safe-for-work language, appropriately enough)
I love looking over these things, because they show you just what people think the FCC does and what they think they have the power to do. Here a couple of (edited) selections that illustrate these points.
This program used the word “s***” [edited by ArtMachine] 10-12 times. Why could they do that, when the Daily Show with Jon Stewart which came on right after it (on a different channel) got bleeped for the same word? I don’t understand your standards, but Saving Grace had to have violated a few of them. (Explicit sex, glamorous tobacco & alcohol.)Last night I was watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, on the Comedy Channel, 7 PM, during one of the pieces about Madonna visiting Isareal [sic], he mentioned her “T** CONES” [edited by ArtMachine, emphasis in original manuscript] on TV. This type of “humor” shocks and offends me. What do you plan on doing about this type of behavior and what type of constraints will be put in place to prevent this type of behavior again?
Mr. Stewart and a guest in discussing matters of alleged interest seemed quite insensitive (very specifically) to avoiding the usage of the “N” word when describing persons of the Negro race (aka African-Americans) but seemed not to care a whit about using the insulting word “k***” [you guessed it – edited by ArtMachine] to refer to Jews. As a person of Jewish heritage and descent, I am shocked and outraged by this conduct. Howard Stern and his network have been chastised and fined for using allowing the usage of [sic] the “N” word during a radio broaddcast [sic] No less a fate should be considered for Mr. Stewart and his employer.
And so, here’s a quick primer.
- The FCC does not bleep broadcasts. The producers do that.
- The FCC does not review shows before they air. They can only respond to complaints after the fact.
- As to that matter, whether or not the FCC’s charter allows them to “chastise and fine” shows for content is a matter of interpretation that has been known to change with each new FCC chairman. Arguably, the FCC regulates the airwaves for the common good – whether that common good includes making certain nobody says offensive words on them or not is up for debate.
- The FCC regulates the airwaves. As is repeated throughout the Daily Show complaints document, the FCC is not empowered to enforce standards on cable.