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Has the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) changed so much since George Carlin's "seven dirty words"? Does it even have a list of words that can't be used on air? In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the FCC's indecency judgment on Carlin's comedy monologue about seven words you can never say on TV (which he said repeatedly in a radio broadcast of the piece). These days, U2 frontman Bono can say the F-word during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards broadcast, and the FCC rules it as not obscene. It appears that the FCC doesn't have a list of banned words, and context is everything. Words can be objectionable depending on how they're used and intended. Bono's exclamation used the F-word as an adjective to describe his excitement. The FCC found his use to be "fleeting and isolated." The FCC prohibits uses of the F-word and similar words "to describe or depict sexual and excretory organs and activities." Carlin's act was an examination of dirty words and their meaning and uses, more than an attempt to show crude actions. But the comedian's constant repetition of these words contributed to the performance's "indecent" label. The original broadcast was at 2 p.m., when children could have been listening, and that was part of the case against the radio station. The FCC's responsibility
is to enforce federal obscenity laws. Even these laws don't define obscenity with a list of words or uses. Instead, material must meet three requirements to be considered obscene: - Applying community standards, an average person must find that the material appeals to the prurient interest.
- The material shows or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by law.
- The material, as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
The FCC¿s Enforcement Bureau notes that material considered merely indecent (but not obscene) may be broadcast between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The
intent is to keep children from such material. And these laws don't apply to obscenity or indecency on cable-only channels -- thus explaining the language on Sex in the City and The Sopranos.
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