Courts to FCC: FU

The hypocritical Bush Administration had upped the penalites for television networks using “bad” words. Certain words are supposedly obscene, like shit and fuck. And the oh-so-moral Bushians wanted to impose massive fines for the use of such words. Under Bush the fine went from $32,500 for a so-called obsence word to $325,000. Hey that increase is almost as big as the increase in federal spending under this spendthrift president.

All the major networks, including Fox, filed a lawsuit in court. As Scott Grogin of Fox said: “Viewers should be allowed to determine for themselves and their familites, through the many parental control technologies available, what is appropriate viewing for their home.”

The reality is that people ought to make these choices for themselves. We don’t Big Brother making these decisions for us. There are words I find obscene. Fuck and shit are not particularly two of them though depending on how they are used they can connote hatred. Words I find obscene are torture, extraordinary rendition, collateral damage and a host of other Orwellian phrases used by the Bush regime. I found it offensive when Vice President Cheney told the graduating class of West Point that they ought to ignore the Constitution when it comes to alleged terrorists.

It should be noted that these government controls only apply to broadcast networks not cable shows. This is under the fiction that the airwaves ought to be state property not private property. (A good example of how collectivized property undermines civil liberties while private property expands civil liberties.) And something like 85% of American homes receive cable. So already the overwhelming majority of Americans have choosen to receive television shows which can say “shit” until the cows come home.

That is they have overwhelming turned down the “protection” the Nannys in the Bush Administration offer. The head censor at the FCC, Kevin Martin, pontificated that he was disappointed on behalf of America’s families. Does the term F.U. mean anything, Kevin? You are a political time-server in an agency that ought to be trashed. You are not the representative of Anerica’s families or any family other than perhaps your own. And I doubt even your family members choose television shows according to your standards.

And here is the icing on the cake. The court noted that the FCC was attempting to criminalize words which both President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been caught using in public. Deputy Fuhrer Cheney told a US Senator to “fuck off”. Now if the FCC had their way Cheney could use his potty mouth in the US Senate all he wanted and the media would be forbidden from telling the public what he said. And Bush so articulately referred to the actions of Hezbollah as “doing shit”. Another phrase that the FCC wanted to ban from television.

In celebration of the FCC getting slapped down and Bush and Cheney providing the ammunition to do so, though unwittingly, we present a stirring rendition of the song “FCC FU”. Enjoy. I am.