I know I said I was stepping back, but as far as statements from public officials go, this has got to be the best press release ever.
Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the use of the words “fuck” and “shit” by Cher and Nicole Richie was not indecent.
I completely disagree with the Court’s ruling and am disappointed for American families. I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that “shit” and “fuck” are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.
The court even says the Commission is “divorced from reality.” It is the New York court, not the Commission, that is divorced from reality in concluding that the word “fuck” does not invoke a sexual connotation.
[…] If ever there was an appropriate time for Commission action, this was it. If we can’t restrict the use of the words “fuck” and “shit” during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want.
That was FCC Chair Kevin Martin responding to yesterday’s ruling that the networks could not be fined for inadvertently airing blurted expletives on live broadcasts.
As my regular readers know, I am fond of foul language. And there is no better example of how expressive and powerful these words can be than the fact that Martin chose to illustrate his point by using the words “fuck” and “shit” ten times during the brief course of a two-page press release.
Ironically, despite Martin’s foul-mouthed objections, even he acknowledges that this ruling might push the FCC towards a more First Amendment friendly, free market solution.
Today’s decision by the Court increases the importance of Congress considering content-neutral solutions to give parents more tools and consumers generally more control and choice over programming coming into their homes. By allowing them to choose the channels that come into their homes, Congress could deliver real power to American families.
Permitting parents to have more choice in the channels they receive may prove to be the best solution to content concerns. All of the potential versions of a la carte would avoid government regulation of content while enabling consumers, including parents, to receive only the programming they want and believe to be appropriate for their families. Providing consumers more choice would avoid the First Amendment concerns of content regulation, while providing real options for Americans.
Hmm. Given an a la carte option, I might actually subscribe to cable. For example, I might subscribe to educational programming like the History Channel and Animal Planet, while shielding my daughter from the obscenity that is FOX News. Sounds fuckin’ good to me.
FUCKIN’-A RIGHT!
funny…first you said that you would be “stepping back” [shutting up] and then almost immediately you are writing again. liar….not surprising really. be sure to try out that whole foul language thing on the radio show.
and the really strange thing was that ROGER already spilled the beans about this in another thread…before you even wrote it. that’s amazing, if you are actually two different people [you are NOT] what are you doing ?sharing a brain?
GOLDY=ROGER.
and to think i once thought you had any talent at all…..
what was i thinking?
and the best part? it was my super liberal relative that is an editor at the NYT that pointed out you had no talent for anything except whining……and foul language. they said you “used it [foul language] because you had little else to present”
an interesting thought.
i never thought i would stop laughing…..
@2
Gets kinda lonely when nobody posts on your sucky blog, huh?
@2;
Read some of your blog. People who live in glass houses, etc.
So when can we expect more colorful language to start appearing on the David Goldstein show on KIRO 710? The 9th Circuit is generally more liberal than the 2nd Circuit, so there is a pretty good chance you can get away with it here.
Be careful for what you wish for, because you may get it.
XmasHag is the Greta Garbo of the Blogosphere.
Man if Faux News Channel didn’t have the MUST CARRY deal they do now, they’d be – well FUCKED! Let’s hope this happens soon.
Let me ask you this: is it a great cultural leap forward to be able to say “shit” on prime time? How does that make our world better? Does that insure world peace and harmony, or is it just the Me Generation X coming out it shell?
FLEET the FLEETING FLEETERS!!!
“fleeting expletives”, eh? Who woulda thought?
Ya learn somethin’ new every day.
if you are actually two different people [you are NOT] what are you doing?
I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW HILARIOUS THIS IS. FIRST WRONG STUFF NOW GHOST.
GHOST, I’D PUT YOU OUT OF YOUR MISERY BUT IT’S JUST TOO ENTERTAINING.
CONTINUE PLEASE…
We already have programmable TVs and radios, so why doesn’t Bill Gates write a program that blocks objectionable audio? It would sell like hotcakes to parents who don’t want their kids to hear words like “fuck” and “shit” and “evolution.” Then my Microsoft stock will finally go up.
@5 Are you referring to the sneaky wingnut caller Sunday night who tried to maneuver Goldy into saying a bad word on the air?
@9 The world would be an infinitely better place if wingnuts spent 1/10th as much time worrying about foul deeds as they spend worrying about foul language.
Some airhead pop entertainer saying “shit” on TV didn’t hurt me nearly as much as the Republican crooks who tripled my electric bill.
The trouble with Republicans is their shitty priorities are fucked up.
Hey everybody! MICHAEL MOORE is appearing on Oprah’s TV show RIGHT NOW!!! He’s talking about America’s for-profit health insurance industry. You know — the folks who take your premium dollars and refuse to pay your medical bills if you have a claim.
Another miserable failure of pirate capitalism.
Roger,
What was your MOS when you were in the Army?
RR, the world would be a hell of a lot better ppalce if you were fucking drop dead!
@20 Why, thank you! There is no higher compliment a wingfuck can pay to a liberal propagandist than to wish he were dead. I appreciate it! If you were standing next to me, I would give you a big fat wet sloppy rabbit kiss on your cheek!!
@19 artillery
As the old saying goes, “Artillery brings dignity to what would otherwise be an unseemly brawl.”
“GOP Seeks to Expel Jefferson From House
“Democratic Congressman Was Indicted on Bribery Charges
“By LAURIE KELLMAN
“AP
“WASHINGTON (June 5) – Republicans moved Tuesday to seek Rep. William J. Jefferson’s expulsion from the House, a day after the Louisiana Democrat was indicted on charges of receiving more than $500,000 in bribes.
“Jefferson, meanwhile, relinquished his seat on the House Small Business Committee before members of his own party could vote to kick him off the panel. …
“An ethics committee probe seemed certain. Pelosi, D-Calif., … was expected to name 10 House Democrats to a pool from which the House ethics committee can pick if it decides to appoint a special subcommittee to investigate the charges against Jefferson ….”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/yurqjb
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The fact Republicans are complete hypocrites in demanding Jefferson’s explusion from the House doesn’t mean Jefferson should stay in Congress. Democratic crooks should get exactly the same treatment Republican crooks like Cunningham and DeLay got. The difference is that Democrats don’t protect their crooks. And, given a choice between evils, I still like our crooks better than their crooks.
@19 In the Army Reserve, after Vietnam, I was an 11-Bravo.
@25 That means “infantry,” for you wingfuck armchair warriors.
@26 In other words, the “unseemly brawl” end of things.
Unseemly brawls are fun! But don’t pick me up by my ears, unless you want to be in one.
Gee, Roger, another old saying about artillery came from Napoleon: God is on the side with the most artillery. . . .
Napoleon was also famous for letting off a cannonade of a “whiff of grapeshot.”
Roger, can we count on you to direct such a cannonade, if the wingnuts get obstreperous?
When I was in the ‘canoe club’ I had the opportunity to observe naval artillery in action.
At a distance of about 20 meters from the business end, a fourteen inch three gun salvo is one loud mo’fo. . . .
Putting five hundred pounds of HE into a target the size of a garbage can at a distance of 18 miles can definitely end an unseemly brawl. . .
New Poll Shows Democratic Congress Not Aggressive Enough In Opposing War
“By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
“Washington Post Staff Writers
“Tuesday, June 5, 2007; Page A01
“Growing frustration with the performance of the Democratic Congress, combined with widespread public pessimism over President Bush’s temporary troop buildup in Iraq, has left satisfaction with the overall direction of the country at its lowest point in more than a decade, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. …
“Disapproval of Bush’s performance in office remains high, but the poll highlighted growing disapproval of the new Democratic majority in Congress. Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April, when the new Congress was about 100 days into its term. More significant, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 10 percentage points over that same period, from 54 percent to 44 percent.
“Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of the Democrats in Congress among strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats. … Many Democratic activists have complained that the 2006 midterm election results represented a call for a course change in Iraq and that so far the Democratic-controlled Congress has failed to deliver. …
“In the new poll, 73 percent of Americans said the country is pretty seriously on the wrong track, while 25 percent said things are going in the right direction. …
“In April, the public, by a 25-point margin, trusted the Democrats over Bush to handle the situation in Iraq. In this poll, Democrats maintained an advantage, but by 16 points. There has been an erosion of support for Democrats on this issue, but not a corresponding movement to Bush. Among independents, trust for the Democrats is down eight points, mostly because of a six-point bump in the percentage who said they trust ‘neither.’ …
“But it is the war in Iraq — the most important issue in the 2006 campaign — that has the most potential to reshape the political landscape.
“Public attitudes about the size of U.S. military forces in Iraq and about the war more generally are closely related to views about the centrality of the situation in Iraq to the broader battle against terrorism, another flashpoint between Bush and congressional Democrats. (In this poll, nearly six in 10 agreed with the Democratic position that the two are separate issues.)”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2em435
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The message here seems to be that the American people want the Democratic Congress to do what they hired it to do: Make Bush leave Iraq.
In the comment thread above, a trollfuck accused me of being a white-flag-waver. Stupidity is not the same thing as surrender, and between the two, the kind of stupidity that insists on vain sacrifice of other people’s lives is a far greater evil. Surrender to who? We don’t even have an enemy in Iraq. Our soldiers are sandwiched between the warring sides of a civil war. What the hell are we spending their lives for? Do any of you trollfucks even know what the “mission” is? Does Bush? Is there one?
Seems to me we should be fighting Al Qaeda instead of trying to separate towelheads who want to kill each other. If you racist pigfuckers really hate Muslims as much as you say you do, why not pull our troops out and let ’em go at it? They’ll do you the favor of getting rid of themselves.
@29 The Mother Rabbit Spirit is on the side of the bunny with the sharpest claws. =:-D
@31 Allowing for minor elevation and deflection errors, a couple of TOTs (time-on-target) should get the job done.
The Rightwing Media Spews Bullshit Dep’t.
“An alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks and pipelines at New York’s JFK airport had little chance of success, according to safety experts, who have questioned whether the plot ever posed a real threat.”
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/E.....42007.html
I’m usually off a bit on factoring in the earth curvature, which looks bigger from down here. I’m only 30 inches tall.
Kevin Martin is basically a skinny Ed Meese. He’s on a tear to sanitize broadcasting and make it all nice and safe for his dominionist pals. One way they figure they can do that is by eliminating “bundled” cable service and forcing each subscriber to specifically order each and every channel, and having it show up in an itemized monthly bill. This, they figure, will deter Joe Horndog American from signing up for any “adult” channels, lest he have to ‘splain to wifey-poo.
Mind you, from the Kevin Martin/Donald Wildmon/James Dobson perspective, “smut” includes HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and half of what’s on the Disney Channel and PBS. Better everyone should be watching the Military Channel and Ultimate Fighting on Fox, the better to be conditioned to the level of manly violence that we all know makes America great.
Aside from that and sharing his predecessor’s passion for turning every millihertz of the electromagnetic spectrum over to the telecom and media oligopolies, Mr. Martin has little interest nor competence in assuring that his agency assure that the electronic communications industry operates in a manner at all hampered by the public interest, safety, convenience or necessity.
Disney Channel? Smut? Someone is really sick if that’s the case. I’m subjected to Disney Channel far more than I’d like to be thanks to the ten-year-old Television Czar, and while I am worried that That’s So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Cory In The House drop my IQ by about 2% every time I watch an episode, I wouldn’t call them “smut.”
PBS, though . . . they’re dangerous. They have Postcards from Buster and a gay midget in a purple rug with a purse and an inverted coat-hanger on its head.
I don’t think these people realize that if a la carte cable were to come into existence, all of their favorite networks (the ones that carry The 700 Club and other shows of that ilk) would last about as long as your average wingnut lasts in a debate about anything more weighty than “tastes great or less filling?”
I am deeply disappointed for American families that the head of the FFC can not write a decent fucking press release.
“Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the use of the words “fuck” and “shit” by Cher and Nicole Richie was not indecent.”
Shouldn’t this, at the very least, read were not indecent
42 I watched Martin in front of a Senate committee a few weeks ago. A couple of Senators were pressing him for answers about some rulemakings (that’s an official FCC term, by the way) about licensing of stuff like rural Internet service and other items not of great importance to the Moral Mafia or big business interests. Clearly, Martin had no credible answers, but blathered and bullshitted and stuttered and tried to blow smoke up everyone’s ass. His performance actually made Gonzales seem articulate and erudite by comparison. Clearly, he’s yet another political hack in the Mike Brown/Monica Goodling who doesn’t know ice cream from horse manure, and most likely has no shame whatever about how obvious that is.
43 I meant to point out that the measures the Senators were displeased about had been sitting un-acted upon since before Martin took office.
A la carte cable would be a Very Good Thing(tm), IMO. Which is why I think it wont happen any time soon: too many rich people have too much to lose if they gave us actual choice in what channels we decided to subscribe.
Michael @ 42
the use [of the words “f—” and “s—” by Cher and Nicole Richie] was not indecent.
The grammar is correct: the use was not indecent
Thanks, Richard. Never been that hot in the grammar department.
david! stop copying milo…..
geez…don’t you idiots ever have a new idea? all on your own???
i know recycling is good and all that….but COME ON! these are brain cells we are talking about here ,not plastic bags[hmmm…or are we?]……
you even copy a more than inane statement with glee.
good grief……this is a total waste.
48 Uhhhhh….then, what are you doing here?
art….watching the animals honey….just watching the animals.