Category: Let's talk
In the name of ridding myself of ignorance, I'm curious if those of you living outside of the United States have government organizations whose job is to deal with obscenity and indecency on radio and TV? We have the Federal Communications Commission or FCC. Part of its job is of course to license any new stations or other licensing issues, deal with various technical issues such as frequency allocation and whatnot, but part of its job seems to be to atempt to police what kind of material is broadcast over radio and TV, well, at least parts of it, such as the several national broadcast networks and such. From time to time there are organizations who want to fight the FCC and who believe it's wanting to censor certain material just because it might be offensive to some. So do other countries have similar policies or are things perhaps more relaxed than they might be here in the States.
That part of the FCC is a direct violation of the first amendment of the US Constitution and it's only getting worse with all this PC rubbish. Hopefully things will balance out but i doubt it somehow. many places in Europe are much more lax on some things than in the USA. Nudity, sex on tv, etc.
in britain, there is an organisation but can't remember what it's called lol. I do know that after 9 pm things like shit, nigga, ass, and such can be said but not fuck or heavy sexual things.
Not many years ago, when I had perfect eyesight, I used to watch the spanish channels here in California and, oh man, they'd show everything; dead bodies, drive-by shootings in progress, everything. I don't think it's changed today even though I can't really say because I don't watch television anymore. But, yup, the news broadcasts were very graffic. I remember seeing an episode on a show called Placas (the spanish version of Cops) and a damn corpse with magots and flies was shown; they were hoping someone could identify the unknown victim of a homicide. man, it sure did traumatize me because I can still see the image in my mind.
Even the BBC is more relaxed on what can and can't be said off and on air. I recall hearing the word fuck on radio 1 many a time after midnight in the UK. Specifically with english words that are considered "bad", it seems that countries where English is not the native language just let whatever fly, since most people can't understand it anyway. And, in some countries, people have adopted the idea that these words and ideas are part of their society, therefor, they should be shown to some degree on TV and heard on radio. As for the polocies in the US, not all of it is FCC mandated. Many companies such as queer channel and CBS have developed there own filters that are more strict than that of the FCC, so it's not only the FCC that should be blamed for this, but those stupid radio/tv corporate giants wich now run 90% of our broadcast spectrum.
queer channel. haha. very good. Talk about ruining radio and television. it's choking the life out of media with these faceless giants.
Here in the UK, we have Ofcom (office for communications), which regulates things like radio and TV. They clamp down on abusive language or content. Examples of this include the fining of Key 103 in Manchester (England) when former presenter there James Stannage made jokes about the beheading of Ken Bigley in Iraq. They also regulate licencing and things like that. Callers to radio shows are not allowed to use fowl language at any time of day, yet television programmes may include fowl language after a certain time. BBC Radio 1 sometimes features fowl language in music, as do other radio stations but this is late at night, and usually, never before 9:00 PM. Also, if codes are breached, it is the radio station or TV channel, which is held responsible, rather than the presenter. That is why it was the radio station in the example I included which was fined, and not the presenter, and they were fined, even though he'd been sacked for some time. He now works on The Revolution in Oldham, but doing a sports programme rather than a talk show.
I live in a part of Canada that borders the United States, so I have a chance to see media from both countries. In my experience, Canada is much more liberal in terms of what can be said and shown.
A good example of this is that a few years back, one of the Canadian brodcast networks started showing the Sopranos in prime time. The show wasn't edited at all. It was shown at ten o'clock in the evening, and there was a warning at the beginning of each episode about language, violence and sexual content, but the show itself was intact. I remember reading at the time that CTV, the network in question, was worried about complaints from viewers about the Sopranos. Not only was there little to none of that, but it was one of the highest rated shows on Canadian television that year.
Turning to the American networks, this past weekend I watched Saturday Night live, and in one sketch, they had to bleep out the word cock. This seems rediculous to me because, a) it was on at 11:30 at night, and b) it was on Saturday Night Live, a show which in the past, had a reputation for pushing the envelope of what could be done on television.
OK, now, it's speculation time. Why do you believe America is stricter about what is said and shown on TV and radio? Are we nothing but a bunch of prudes and just doing this to throw our weight around, or is there actual scientific and psychological evidence that says if children, and I assume the main reason for all this prohibition is protecting children, actually are hurt by the sight of naked flesh or the sound of certain words? I would think graphic violence would be more damaging to a child or anyone than naked flesh or certain taboo words.
As for the FCC, they are probably getting a lot of complaints from groups like the Parents' Television Council. These groups, I'm guessing, are probably told by one or two people how bad a given show is or just what was said on the morning zoo of your choice, and the rest of them flood the FCC with complaint letters even though they personally did not see or hear the offending material. We seem to have a very vocal group of people with a very pessimistic view of the outside world, and if they personally don't rescue us, they think things will get worse and it'll be their fault. I'd like to tell them to shut up and let me have my media uncensored, and maybe one day we'll shrug off our prudishness and join the rest of hte world.
Weren't people asking for the execution of Timothy McVeigh to be televised? Whoa, imagine if we were to return to public executions.
I think the reason that America has tougher censorship in its media than the UK and Canada, is that elements of the American population are very sensitive. Their is a higher amount of people who are passionate about their religion in America than in the UK or Canada. Therefore, this percentage of the population is able to have a greater influence on decency regulations. I don't know what percentage of FCC people who make decesions on decency in media are passionate about their religion, and I don't know to what extent the FCC is influenced by the government, but each percentage may be an influencial factor with regards the decency regulations.