Brief swear words might cost broadcasters a bundle under a much-anticipated ruling the Supreme Court issued Tuesday.
By 5-4, the court upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to regulate “fleeting expletives.” These can be passing uses of what the court’s conservative majority delicately termed “the F- and S-words,” among other things.
“Even isolated utterances can be made in pander(ing) … vulgar and shocking manners,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. “It is surely rational, if not inescapable, to believe that a safe harbor for single words would likely lead to more widespread use of the offensive language.”
Even so, the court’s ruling was limited. Although the majority agreed that the FCC had acted within its authority, the justices stopped short of determining that a ban on fleeting expletives violates the First Amendment.
That crucial question now will be returned to the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“We are optimistic that we will ultimately prevail when the First Amendment issues are fully aired before the courts,” Fox Television Stations declared in a statement. Fox was the object of the FCC action.
The case, FCC v. Fox Television Stations, arose out of incidents on live broadcasts involving Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie.
I think that, in the case of live broadcasts, that they should not go after the broadcaster, but rather the person who said the word. After all, they know they are on broadcast TV.
Seriously? This is what our society has come to? I can only imagine what the next step in this progression will be. Probably fining scripted shows that intentionally end scenes in the middle of expletives. (i.e. “Oh, sh–” Cut to black.) I mean, is it really that much of a leap from “fleeting” to “implied”? Curse words are a part of speech, whether the FCC likes it or not. Banishing them from TV won’t change that, it will only make the TV shows less believable.
I think there’s another logical progression of this that’s even worse, and that’s “replacement” words being banned. Words like Frak, Frell, and everyone’s favourite, Feltergarb. I can see this happening, because they *mean* the same thing, even though they’re not the same word.
This is what’s stupid about having “bad words” in general. You ban a word, and then you have to ban everything that means the same thing. Crazy.
And yes, I think the speaker should be held accountable, not the broadcaster.
Meh. I’ve always said it is the intent of the person speaking the words, not the words themselves that are “bad”. Sometimes societal majority rules suck.