George Carlin: History of Censorship #1 Traditional Cache
George Carlin: History of Censorship #1
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From Wikipedia:
In 1972, George Carlin released an album of stand-up comedy
entitled Class Clown. One track on the album was "Seven Words You
Can Never Say on Television", a monologue in which he identified
these words, expressing amazement that these particular words could
not be used, regardless of context. He was arrested for disturbing
the peace when he performed the routine at a show at Summerfest in
Milwaukee.
On his next album, 1973's Occupation: Foole, Carlin performed a
similar routine titled "Filthy Words," dealing with the same list
and many of the same themes. Pacifica station WBAI-FM broadcast
this version of the routine uncensored on October 30 that year. A
man named Jon Douglas, who was driving in the car with his son,
heard the early-afternoon broadcast and complained to the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) that the material was inappropriate
for the time of day.
Following the lodging of the complaint, the FCC proceeded to ask
Pacifica for a response, then issued a declaratory order upholding
the complaint. No specific sanctions were included in the order,
but WBAI was put on notice that "in the event subsequent complaints
are received, the Commission will then decide whether it should
utilize any of the available sanctions it has been granted by
Congress." WBAI appealed this decision, which was overturned by the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit. The FCC in turn appealed to the Supreme Court, which in
1978 ruled in favor of the FCC in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation.
This decision formally established indecency regulation in American
broadcasting. In follow-up rulings, the Supreme Court established
the safe-harbor provision that grants broadcasters the right to
broadcast indecent (but not obscene) material between the hours of
10 pm and 6 am, when it is presumed many children will be asleep.
The FCC has never maintained a specific list of words prohibited
from the airwaves during the time period from 6 AM to 10 PM, but it
has alleged that its own internal guidelines are sufficient to
determine what it considers obscene. The seven dirty words had been
assumed to be likely to elicit indecency-related action by the FCC
if uttered on a TV or radio broadcast, and thus the broadcast
networks generally censor themselves with regard to many of the
seven dirty words. The FCC regulations regarding "fleeting" use of
expletives were ruled unconstitutionally vague by a three-judge
panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on July
13, 2010, as they violated the First Amendment due to their
possible chilling effects on free speech.
“The FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, decided
all by itself that radio and television were the only two parts of
American life not protected by the free speech provisions of the
first amendment to the Constitution. I'd like to repeat that,
because it sounds vaguely important.” – George
Carlin
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