Friday, July 27, 2007

The FCC has had enough of your shit


I'm not sure how many of you know this, but you can actually swear on live television if it's considered a "fleeting expletive" and not get fined. Lord knows announcing live isn't easy and it's possible for even the best people to accidentely drop a "shit" here or a "double penetration" there. I'm not sure Bert Blyleven's live double F-bomb drop from a year ago would count as fleeting, but you get the point. And this kind of thing happens a lot more than you'd think.

Well, the government has decided to step in and end the fun. For a while the FCC has been trying to get the right to fine broadcasters that accidentely swear. Standing in their way was a New York federal appeals court that found the commission's policy on fineable "fleeting expletives" to be arbitrary and capricious. So just make that swear look like an accident my friends and you're in the clear. But last week in Washington the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee took an active step to negate the appeals court ruling when they passed a bill that would allow the FCC to fine broadcasters for slip of the tongue expletives. And the House is now on board as well.

What a shame. Half the reason I watch pro sports is because they're as live as TV gets. My dream is witnessing Joe Buck spurt out a hailstorm of expletives on live TV as Randy Moss takes a dump on the field after a touchdown to win the Super Bowl.

But if this bill passes, every sporting event broadcast could go on tape-delay in order for the stations to avoid paying out the ass should Bert Blyleven drop another crowd pleasing F-bomb.

And that's just fucking wrong.

-WCK

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