My NPR station broadcasts "n(#*r" and "c*^t"

Today’s State of Things was quite bold. It was a discussion of offensive language.

When I flipped on the radio in the car, they were discussing the word “nigger.” And saying it - not just “the n-word.” I was impressed at their chutzpah. But when I came in, they were already segueing to gender epithets. They talked about “bitch” and mentioned Bitch magazine. Then one person said something like, “When I think of something really offensive regarding women, it’s not ‘bitch’ so much as ‘cunt.’”

I laughed out loud. I couldn’t believe I was hearing this on the radio! And then indeed, Frank cautioned her that they weren’t allowed to say *that *on the radio, and referenced Jane Fonda accidentally dropping the c-bomb on the Today show of all places, and their immediate apology. (She was talking about The Vagina Monologues, not dissing someone, FTR.)

I thought it was interesting. It wasn’t mean-spirited and questionable like “Dr.” Laura, it was just frank and matter-of-fact. It was kind of cool.

Thanks, I downloaded the podcast!

I await the disingenuous backlash from Fox.

I find it very odd that “nigger” is okay, but “cunt” is not. I know people who will say the latter and not the former, but not the other way around.

Relevant piece (which is actually from The Root, not NPR).

Racial slurs are not censored over public airwaves only curse words are.

Louis CK does a funny bit about how he is offended by “The N Word.” Note, he’s not offended by ‘nigger’, he’s offended when people say “The N Word.” He actually makes a good point about when you hear someone say “The N word” you’re mentally thinking ‘nigger’ at that point. So he hates newscasters who plant that word in his head. It’s a way for white people to say nigger.

I found a youtube clip of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwj--wGEgY

Dang it I forgot the comedian from the sixties who said the only way to take the power from a word was to use it a lot.Then proceeded to make his point by saying kike kike kike kike…and so on making the words into gibberish noises. Kind of a good point I thought. Yeah it was Lenny Bruce

I downloaded the mp3 and the c-word is bleeped. Did it go uncensored in the original broadcast?

A few years ago NPR broadcast a completely uncensored piece from Iraq where soldiers cussed heavily. Although their imagination was somewhat limited to variations of the f and mf-word. NPR stated that “this next segments contains uncensored language” and rolled the whole thing. This, btw, was during the day, not late at night. So I guess there are exceptions to the FCC rules.