Preamble via Slashdot: News.com reports that the FCC won't be investigating the phone record disclosures by communications companies under US government pressure. Despite a congressional request for that probe, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin quashed the inquiry based on comments from National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell.
Back in the day, when I was a young strippling in 60s New York, we tuned nightly to a listener supported station of the Pacifica Foundation, WBAI. It was great. Bob Fass in the wee hours. One of the things WBAI did 30 years ago was take on the FCC over broadcast of George Carlin's iconic comedy set, "The seven words you can never say on TV" (for scholarly reference, they are "Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits"). It led to a landmark Supreme Court ruling.
But now WBAI won't broadcast Allen Ginsberg's classic Beat poem, "Howl" even though 50 years ago a San Francisco judge ruled it wasn't obscence. 50 years ago! Why not? Because today WBAI is justly afraid the FCC will levy indecent fines against it:
In the new media landscape, the "Howl" controversy illustrates how indecency standards differ on the Internet and on the public airwaves. Instead of broadcasting the poem on the air today, New York listener-supported radio station WBAI will include a reading of the poem in a special online-only program called "Howl Against Censorship." It will be posted on www.pacifica.org, the Internet home of the Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation, because online sites do not fall under the FCC's purview."Why, 50 years later after a judge ruled that children could read this poem, people are afraid the courts will say that their ears shouldn't hear it," said Ron Collins, a constitutional law instructor and First Amendment advocate who is leading a small group of authors, broadcasters and free-speech advocates pushing to broadcast the poem eventually. "Yet they can go on the Internet and see far, far worse things." (San Francisco Chronicle)
There are a lot of naughty words in "Howl." Under current guidelines, each one could produce a fine of $325,000. That's a lot of listener pledge drives for a commercial-free station with a puny $4 million budget.
But it's not just Beat poems. Several PBS stations aired "sanitized" versions of Ken Burns's 14 hour documentary on World War II. I know it's shocking, but soldiers sometimes used bad language. Better not risk a fine by airing it. Of course the brutality of war, well . . . On the other end of the scale, Janet Jackson's 9/16 of a second of bare tit during the Superbowl halftime show produced a $550,000 fine.
Then there was the Emmy Award show:
At last month's Emmy Awards broadcast, the Fox network censored three instances in which performers said words that the network felt could land it an FCC fine. One involved comedian Ray Romano using the word "screwing." In another instance, a performer mouthed, but didn't say, a four-letter word. The third was actress Sally Field using the word "goddamn" to describe her opposition to the war in Iraq. (SF Chronicle)
Interestingly, the Chronicle didn't mention Kathy Griffin's instructions to Jesus to "Suck It," also censored. Maybe the Chronicle approved. Well I think you should have the chance to see it:
Back to "Howl." Some of us will remember its impact when it came out. It is still powerful and seems even more a propos today then it did in 1957. Here are the opening stanzas:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,dragging themselves through the negro streets at
dawn looking for an angry fix,angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient
heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the
machinery of night,who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high
sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
contemplating jazz,who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and
saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tene-
ment roofs illuminated,who passed through universities with radiant cool
eyes hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy
among the scholars of war,who were expelled from the academies for crazy &
publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burn-
ing their money in wastebaskets and listening
to the Terror through the wall[the rest here]
Is this whole thing ridiculous, or what?
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I hadn't seen the Kathy Griffin "suck it, Jesus" video until now; I'd only read news pieces about it. It's interesting that none of those stories described how well her speech seemed to go over with the audience. Those people were having a good time!
Incidentally, Fox News silenced the audio of that clip to cut out "damn" and "suck".
Wa'll Revere. Sally might have just been saying that if the women of the world had any say there wouldnt be any wars. Kind of a blanket statement after she won yet another one and was just too blabby, she always is.
All were on notice before all of the incidents that they needed to watch their mouths because of the crowd that was watching. It gets pretty raunchy on Fox late at night as does TBS and a few others.
Oh BTW I do agree its a tempest in a teacup. They should have the good grace to take their awards and not make political statements. The forum for that is in the voting booth or political rallies. Its like cheap advertising.
And J.Jackson did have a nice nipple. My son had it downloaded within two hours when I caught him at it after the game. Playing it over and over again. 15 year olds....
Hmmm... Perv. No, but that kind of stuff on a family watched program is what it was about. Prudish, yeah maybe. But everyone should have a standard by which to ensure that they can ensure that their kids wont be exposed to Janet's exposure. Timberlake had an "Aw shit" moment as he realized he just had a nice round one in his hand.
You ever read the procedings on this? It was hilarious and believe it or not if they had put a NC-17 rating on the game (violence, nudity, language) it would have been fine. Thats the near term plan for these kinds of things. Sally got bleeped, family show. Language... No rating warning.
Same with Kathy. I think they are all good Americans by the way. Janet for more reasons than one but less than 3.
By the way, Gores V chip would have missed them all because the pre-rating is how it gets clipped.
Another failed program......