Each network has a “standards and practices” office which reviews programs for content. There are, besides, Federal Communications Commission regulations which are enforced in response to complaints from the public.
The FCC’s regulations ban obscenity, and set out guidlines for when “indecent” material can be broadcast. The term “indecent” is a rather vague one; it appears to cover large portions of the Bible, for instance.
As one person’s definition of obscene or offensive material will vary considerably from another’s–one person’s definition is even liable to vary from day-to-day–regulations by both the FCC and the networks have traditionally concentrated on specific words or images which are prohibited, at least at certain times of day, and under certain circumstances.
This allows broadcasters to know in advance what is expected of them, even if the rules seem arbitrary, inflexible and, at times, petty. Hence George Carlin’s famous routine about the seven words you can’t say on air. Recently Carlin has reported that the FCC has relaxed its view and one can now say “pissed off”, but only if it is not because you have been “pissed on”. I believe it was actor Michael O’Donahough who observed that you can show a vagina on TV, but only if a baby is coming out of it at the time.
Over the years the networks have weakened their standards considerably. I will leave it to others to argue out the specifics of when this has been a good thing and when it hasn’t.
The FCC has also revised its rules considerably; in 1980 third party candidate Dr. Barry Commoner was able to say on the radio that he thought the choice between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and the way in which they were conducting their campaigns, was pretty much “bullshit”, but he was only able to do so because he was saying it in a paid political announcement.
Since then the FCC seems to have increasingly focused on the context in which language or images appear and the time of day in which they are broadcast. While this seems to be a good thing in principle, it makes it increasingly difficult to know what will be allowed, and when.
Comedian Buddy Hackett once observed on The Tonight Show that early in his career he was prohibited from telling a story on air about an actor he knew who had been able to make himself cry while in character while on stage. He did this by holding his hand to his face and surreptisiously yanking loose a cluster of hairs from his nostril. He was told that this anecdote was too vulgar for broadcasting. Nowadays, Hackett concluded, you could yank a winged monkey out of your butt on live TV and nobody gave a damn.
Some years ago a local public radio station in St. Louis rebroadcast an on-air Christmas party it had aired live a couple of years before. During the program an on-air personality described getting her husband into the holiday spirit by wrapping her lips around his penis and “singing” Christmas carols up the shaft. Another on-air personality, using a bad imitation of an Irish brogue, pretended to be a Catholic priest and advised her on the Church’s position. (He said it was only a mortal sin when you got to the “Fa la la la” part).
While his alleged witticism showed a certain quickness and agility of thought, it struck me that this unscripted exchange kind of went over the line, considering that the program was being aired as a holiday presentation in the middle of the afternoon, and had been on for nearly an hour without aything remotely risque being said before. What’s more, as already said, it was a rebroadcast of a show from two years before, meaning that there had been plenty of opportunity in advance to omit this particular passage.
Having never written to the FCC before–and having never felt the need to–I sent a letter describing what I had heard. Roughly a year later I received a letter from the FCC saying that they were unable to investigate or take action as they were only able to control “obscene” material.
TBS, TNT, MTV, CNN, etc. are cable stations.