news obsenities

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Does anyone remember what Bushie said?

from SLATE: >The [Washington POST] and NY [TIMES] front news that a
federal appeals court determined the Federal Communications Commission
can't penalize broadcasters for what are known as "fleeting
expletives," which are basically unplanned obscenities such as what
might be heard during a live event. The court said the FCC hadn't
properly explained why it decided to begin regulating this type of
obscenity and even put in doubt whether the agency has the power to
regulate language.

> But figuring out what the case was about could be quite difficult for
readers as the papers dance around actually writing the words that
were at the heart of the matter. The NYT gets into ridiculous
territory with this avoidance when it mentions a part of the decision
that cites examples of how President Bush and Vice President Cheney
have used the same language that could be fined by the FCC. But the
paper doesn't give much clue as to what these statements actually
were, describing how Bush uttered "a common vulgarity" and Cheney
"muttered an angry obscene version of 'get lost'." The Post doesn't
mention the presidential angle but at least gives readers the best
idea of what the case was about when it describes how during an awards
show Cher talked back to her critics and said, "[f-word] 'em."
(Interestingly enough, in 2004, when the WP actually printed the words
"fuck yourself" in reporting Cheney's comments, the paper's editor
defended the decision by saying: "readers need to judge for themselves
what the word is because we don't play games at The Washington Post
and use dashes.") TP is well aware that journalists are constricted by
their style guides, but shouldn't there be some sort of exception when
the offensive language is the news?<
--
Jim Devine /  "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your
own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.