Confessions of Howard Stern's Censor

[livius drusus]

There's an interesting interview with "Dead Air Dave", the man formerly in charge of bleeping out indecent content from Howard Stern's broadcast radio show, here. Check it out to get a glimpse of how FCC regulations and enforcement work in practice.

They sound like a bunch of assholes to me

Before Janet, I was able to make a split-second judgment call about what would get us fined. Afterwards, it became increasingly difficult. I’ll give you one example. Before Janet, the company allowed guests and callers to say “asshole.” Howard and the crew would have to say “a-hole,” which was silly because other radio stations and other shows were saying the word asshole, and asshole is not one of the seven dirty words. As long as you’re not talking about someone’s actual asshole, the word did not present an issue. If you’re calling someone an asshole, it wouldn’t incur a fine, but Howard was never permitted to say it. After Janet, the word was not allowed to be used on the air at all, by anyone.

[username]

While I support Howard's right to say asshole, I really don't want to hear anything he has to say ever again.

[godfry n. glad]

I support your right not to hear Howard Stern again, just as I support Howard Stern's right to say asshole.

He oughta know, after all.

[D. Scarlatti]

A federal administrative agency defining policy "before and after Janet" ... that's just pathetic.

[Waluigi]

My wife works in television. The post-Janet FCC is a completely different organization than the pre-Janet one. I think they were just looking for an excuse to exercise control, and "Nipplegate" provided such an excuse.

Local stations had to remove content in movies from the 80s, that aired probably hundreds of times on television un-edited. Her company actually has an obscenity coordinator, whose job it is to make judgement calls on things before they air. It's unbelievable.

And the rules are completely arbitrary: indecent is whatever the FCC says it is, today. It doesn't matter that it's different from yesterday or tomorrow. If the FCC fines you, the only governing body you can appeal to is... wait for it... the FCC. So they're basically an independent agency who has complete and total authority to decide what is offensive on the public airwaves.

These people (the committee members) are not elected officials, they don't necessarily represent the views of most Americans, they don't even need to have any particular qualifications.

Fuck the FCC. Fuck it in its asshole. The indecency rules need to be revoked, or at the very least, made a little more consistent.

(Speaking of assholes, I'm reminded of when my wife told me about a memo stating that "asshole" is not necessarily indecent, unless you're describing something going in or coming out of assholes, in which case, it's not allowed.)

[erimir]

Fuck the FCC, huh?

Reminds me of a presentation another student gave in one of my linguistics classes, which was entitled "Fuck the FCC".

I agree. Fuck 'em.

Random fact: they don't censor any language on Swedish TV. The only bleeped words are ones that were bleeped in the original recording of a show (e.g. an American show), and so never had an uncensored version.

[Ari]

I find it all a bit distorted to begin with.
"fuck" or a barely visible nipple aren't acceptable, but blood and guts splattered across the room or what might appear as sex are.

[erimir]

Bikini clad bimbos eating pig testicles is ok too.

[California Tanker]

Originally Posted by Waluigi

And the rules are completely arbitrary: indecent is whatever the FCC says it is, today. It doesn't matter that it's different from yesterday or tomorrow. If the FCC fines you, the only governing body you can appeal to is... wait for it... the FCC. So they're basically an independent agency who has complete and total authority to decide what is offensive on the public airwaves.

The BATFE got smacked by the US Court of Appeals about a week or two ago for exactly this: It is within their remit to say what substances constitute explosives, and what do not. They go and say that ACPC is an explosive, and now everyone needs to follow explosive acquisition/handling rules. ACPC is a propellant almost exclusively found in model rockets, so the hobbyist organisations appeal to the courts.

The court said that they were quite happy to allow the BATFE to make its various decisions as they're the experts on the matter. However, the court upheld the modeller's appeal because the BATFE didn't present any declared standards beyond "Because we said so"

http://nar.org/pdf/2006OralArgumentDecision.pdf

Other organisations take note.

NTM

[Jesus Christ]

Fuck you very much the FCC
Fuck you very much for fining me
5000 bucks a fuck
So I'm really out of luck
That's more than Heidi Fleiss was charging me
http://www.pythonline.com/plugs/idle/

[D. Scarlatti]

Originally Posted by California Tanker

Tripoli Rocketry Assoc., Inc. v BATFE

If you're not against the model rocketry enthusiasts, you're with the terrorists.