FCC and Profanity

Broadcasters Win Appeal Of FCC's Profanity Ruling By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 5, 2007; Page A01 A federal appeals court tossed out an indecency ruling against Rupert Murdoch's Fox television network yesterday and broadly questioned whether the Federal Communications Commission has the right to police the airwaves for offensive language. (Washington Post)

The FCC was handed their hat by a New York Appeals court. And rightly so. This is an agency that has been fickle about the regulations it enforces for years now. In 2007, the FCC really should not be playing nanny to the nation. However, I do not believe this ruling opens the way for broadcasters to start using Carlin's Seven Dirty Words either.

There is a lot of technology out there to keep you from seeing programs that you find offensive, but the most important one is called the power switch and it comes with every TV ever manufactured. It is not the government's responsibility to monitor the television airways for things that some group might find offensive to this or that segment of the population. That is your sole responsibility, and if you abdicate it to the government, what other, more important responsibility are you abdicating?