Friday, July 15, 2005

Who the Fuck Are You, PTC?

If I were to stop Friday Beer Blogging and take a page from AbeLog's Beatle/ELO blogging, I would be inclined blog about The Who at the end of each week.

Which brings me to the conservative Parents Television Council that once again has sniffed out a bad word coming across the airwaves to corrupt the youth of America.

This time PTC is all upset that ABC failed to catch a bad word during The Who's Live 8 performance:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A parents group on Thursday accused the ABC television network of violating broadcast decency standards when it failed to censor all profanity uttered during the recent Live 8 concert, an event held to draw attention to poverty in poor countries.

The Parents Television Council, which has filed numerous complaints about potentially indecent material on television, asked the Federal Communications Commission to levy a fine on ABC stations for failing to censor the July 2 performance of "Who Are You" by The Who.

"The program was aired on a tape delay, which should have given ABC ample time to edit all obscenities from the concert prior to broadcast," Tim Winter, PTC executive director, said in a statement.

The complaint was filed against the Washington, D.C., ABC affiliate WJLA, but the council asked the FCC to take action against all the ABC stations that aired the profanity, according to a spokeswoman for the organization.

U.S. law bars radio and television broadcasters from airing obscene material, and limits them to airing indecent material, typically profanity or sexually explicit content, to late night hours when children are less likely to be watching.

"Unfortunately, one inappropriate phrase sung by one performer was initially missed and made it into the East Coast network feed," ABC said in a statement. "It was subsequently edited out of the West Coast feed."

The story doesn't say, but I'm assuming the offending word came as Roger Daltrey sang the line, "Who the fuck are you?", which appears in the studio version of the song as well. But here's the thing, radio stations have been playing that song, complete with potty-mouth word, at all hours of the day since it's release in 1978. This is nothing new. But it's a way for these busy-body church lady types to get more attention, I suppose.

UPDATE: And while I'm at it, why has it been OK for the word "faggot" to be heard in the Dire Straights song "Money For Nothing" since 1985 but last year's "American Idiot" by Green Day has the same word bleeped out on almost every radio station? Especially since the reference in "Money For Nothing" is a tad bit more derogatory (IMHO) than the one in "American Idiot".

Just askin'.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

The parents who complained probably say worse things than fuck in their own homes while children are present.

Jim said...

Actually, I had never heard anything other than the edited version of "Who Are You" until about a year-and-a-half ago, right at the height of the Janet Jackson fiasco, when I heard a Springfield station (not part of the group I work for) play it in its full F-word glory. I have to tell you, I was shocked.

Not offended, of course, not at all. But I was surprised.

And now I'm curious -- just what exactly would be worse than "fuck" that parents could say in their own homes while children are present?

Anonymous said...

Your voice counts too.

You can ask the FCC to deny the PTC's indecency complaint at speakspeak.org. It only takes about 5 seconds.

Dave said...

Whoa, I had to re-read that last comment to understand Anon was not talking ABOUT Jim. My delete button finger was getting itchy for only the second time since I've been running this blog.

Having said that, I think Anon is right, it's the meaning behind what you say more than just the words you speak.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Dave. Even though I don't agree with almost 99.9% of what Leach talks about, I am not going to go balistic. Believe me I have heard a lot more in my 48 yrs on this planet but I think you get the drift. Hearing a bad word is one thing, have it used against you in one way or another is where you have to draw the line.

Jim said...

Yeah, thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood the point of that post at first, too. Now that Dave made it clear, it makes sense.

I just hope the anonymous poster wasn't my mom. That would have really hurt my feelings.

Philosophe Forum said...

Surprisingly, I find more important things to worry about. My time's too valuable to bother with a spoken word (sound thru the air having no solid mass) that has no effect on living.

muebles las rozas said...

It won't succeed as a matter of fact, that's exactly what I think.