April 7, 2001

5:43 AM

Feds post indecent material.In a move sure to be challenged, the FCC released a report which offfers examples of what they consider to be indecent, and not indecent.

In typical government style, anything that is referred to "sexual" is deemed indecent. But use of the word such as "motherF****r" isn't. This just makes things even more confusing... at least to me.

Examples:

Indecent: "Well, it was a nice big fart. I'm feeling very gaseous at this point."

Not indecent: "The hell I did, I drove motherF****r, oh. Oh."

Indecent: "Sit on my face and tell me that you love me. I'll sit on your face and tell you I love you too." - Montey Python
posted by da5id (10 comments total)

On pages 10 and 11, they reference the usage of 2 "f*ck" phrases as "not indecent because [they were] fleeting and isolated."

Though the report describes these as "Not Indecent," it doesn't authorize or condone further usage. This report does not say "Yes, it is okay to say motherf*cker, go ahead," it states that these 2 situations, where the radio announcer accidentally, or otherwise inadvertently, utilized the word, "f*uck," were uncommon and not "actionable" in terms of issuing them a violation. It basically says, Yeah, they said 'f*ck,' but they don't normally, nor did the intention to violate the standards exist, so we did not punish them for an uncharacteristic slip-up. On page 11, however, the FCC does clarify that "even relatively fleeting references may be found indecent."

I think the point of this report was to discern between intention and inattention and to clarify what the FCC deems as violations, rather than to serve as white papers for what's allowable and what's not.
posted by Hankins at 8:51 AM on April 7, 2001

What's up with the library filtering thing rulings, also mentioned in the story? I'm confused. Are librarians Public Enemy No. 1 among the anti-obscenity advocates? Weird, weird, weird.
posted by raysmj at 10:51 AM on April 7, 2001

Well, those librarians do have a nasty habit of offering easy access to a lot of information. Some of which is intended to be read by adults, but not children. Can you imagine? What kind of perverts would create such a place???
posted by Dirjy at 12:00 PM on April 7, 2001

i don't know if they would consider it indecent, but on the "hard rock" station here in recent months i've heard the words shit and dick repeatedly in songs. on the r&b/rap stations, though, most of the words bleeped out have to do with drug use.
posted by sugarfish at 3:23 PM on April 7, 2001

The only word one of our local stations bleeps out is the word "gun" ... !
posted by SpecialK at 4:42 PM on April 7, 2001

It may be helpful to avoid Wired's sarcasm and get this info straight from the horse's mouth.
posted by rmannion at 9:02 PM on April 7, 2001

Librarians are typically vicious anti-censorship advocates. The American Library Association sponsors Banned Book Week every year and anytime the government tries to censor material that might be found in the library, including the Internet, the ALA and librarians everywhere take a strong stand against it.

Go librarians!
posted by daveadams at 9:50 PM on April 7, 2001

We had a mole in our Junior High School class -- a student who worked in the library and had access to all the inside information. He informed us one day that every 35th book checked out from the library would result in free candy given to the lucky borrower. That was the day my friends and I thought it would be witty to check out 35 books at a time. Looking back, I can understand now where some of the librarians' pent-up rage may be originating.
posted by Hankins at 11:44 PM on April 7, 2001

Can't everyone think of about 1,000,000 better wastes of our tax dollars than this?
posted by owillis at 7:49 AM on April 8, 2001

All this brings to mind the age-old question: Why are the Republicans are so anxious to get government off your back if you're a corporation, but if you're an individual citizen... fuhgeddaboutit!
posted by TheShovel at 5:36 PM on April 8, 2001