Abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous. Anyone offended by Bono saying “fuck” should be laughed at like the damn fools they are. If you get all hot and bothered by the f-bomb, you must have a hell of a time being a functional member of society.
Fining Howard too, are they? Stupid, stupid, stupid. If you are offended by Howard’s show, don’t fucking listen. The choice is yours. You know what his show’s like. And if you don’t, you’ll find out reeeeal quick. If you are offended by what you hear, there are two options: change the station, or come cryin’ like a baby to the FCC. Only one of these options is correct. The other is only for fuckin’ morons. Guess which one.
I’m sick of the hyper-moral offenderati dictating what can and cannot be shown on television or heard on the radio. If you don’t want to hear a conversation with someone having sex, or if the f-word offends you, fine. Turn off the TV, change the channel, complain to the damn network if you absolutely must. But don’t drag the government into this. It’s not - or it shouldn’t be - their job to punish people for offending you. Grow up, get over it, and leave the rest of us alone.
You’re pitting the wrong guys. The FCC enforces federal law on this point, and federal law is explicit. Frankly, it would be better if the executive branch aggressively enforced all laws, even the stupid ones, because (like here) the stupidity of the laws would be laid bare for the public to see rather than being used as a behind-the-scenes tool for acheiving other policy objectives.
So the folks you want to Pit are Congress. But you probably want to do it without using any dirty words – they apparently hate that.
The problem with blaming Congress for bad laws is that those laws were mostly passed with the understanding they’d never actually be enforced. It’s just an empty gesture to appeal to one constituency or another.
The people who REALLY deserve to be pitted are the ones who never get blamed: the voters. It lies completely in the lap of the public that their every insane whim is played up as a legitimate concern, because they jump up and down and act like babies whenever they aren’t being coddled. Major social breakdowns, financial ruin, totalitarianism they’ll tolerate, but ignore the calls for National Salmon Awareness Week or The Anti-Icky Internet Stuff Bill and the tiny cadres of loons that latch onto them will nickel and dime you out of office.
That’s why I generally just bitch about democracy, the most restrictive form of government imaginable. Someone illiterate in South Dakota having a say in the governance of MY life, HEEELLLLL no.
Hey Copps (hmmm, doendat just seem a bit too appropriate?), why the fuck not position your self EVEN FURTHER to the right? Plenty of room over there, huh? This is scary stuff kids… This is what the Boomer generation hath wrought to protect the precious little minds of their perfectly fucked-up grandchildren?
I’d call it Comstockery, but people nowadays probably think that’s just some obscure dirty word…
Oh, oh… now I’m screwedOOPS…
Like the old Steve Martin bit… “C’mon God, I wasn’t so bad! How many times did I take the Lord’s name in vain? …ulp… Million-Six? Jesus Cr…”
I’d be more convinced of the FCC’s sincerity if the smiting of Stern didn’t follow so closely on the heels of his denounciations of Emperor George W. Bush. Even if there was no relationship between the two acts, the appearance of impropriety is not a flattering one.
The FCC, by politically catering to the right to bolster W. in the re-election year, has ended the uneasy truce between broadcasters, the FCC, and the First Amendment.
The game is supposed to be: broadcasters push to see how far they get away with… the FCC slowly retreats, giving them more freedom… the broadcasters go two step forward… that’s too far and there’s a public outcry… congress has inquiries… the FCC slaps wrists… the broadcasters take one step back and, after waiting a bit, starts inching forward again…
This is more than wrist slapping. This is lawsuit time. Thus, this will be appealed to the Supreme Court and we’ll have a watershed decision that strikes down most of the FCC censorship regs.
And won’t the neocons be glad they pushed this issue?