BONO & THE FCC

Perhaps some of you have heard about the vulgarity U2 lead singer Bono uttered at the Golden Globe Awards when accepting an award. We shall not repeat the word in its fullness here, but it begins with an "f". Well, traditionally the FCC has held you can't say that on tv. Now we find you can, if you use it properly:

The FCC decided not to levy sanctions. In fact, the FCC decided to allow the word in question to be uttered on television without sanctions in the future. Here is the explanation, and I offer it at some length. The FCC used the actual word; it was my decision to add the asterisks:

“The word ‘f***ing may be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory activities or functions. Rather, the performer used the word f***ing as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation. Indeed, in similar circumstances, we have found that offensive language used as an insult rather than as a description of sexual or excretory activity or organs is not within the scope of the Commission’s prohibition of indecent program content.”

So it was that the FCC decided to “reject the claims that this program content is indecent.”

In other words, it’s okay to say f*** on television if you’re not talking about f***ing.

I remember a decade ago or so when the word a** (to refer to the derriere) was allowed on tv. Suddenly everyone just had to say it on all the hep shows. These days you can hardly watch anything on television without hearing it repeatedly. Watch for the same with this. Actually, don't watch for it at all. Turn it off. Or I've found you can safely watch the various Discovery channels and the History channel.