Meanwhile, back in the lower GI of civilization:

- The Supreme Court debated whether the Federal Communications
Commission was correct in fining the Fox network for unscripted use of
offensive words by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie. Bono and Cher both
used adjectival forms of a commonly heard expletive that is, in some
contexts, a rude synonym for sexual intercourse; Richie, more
creatively inclined, used several expletives while describing the
difficulty of getting cow manure out of a Prada purse.
To sum it up: It is difficult indeed.

The stakes are high. The FCC fined the network $50,000 per station for
the gaffes. In doing so, it claimed the unilateral ability to decide
what words were offensive, in what contexts they were offensive,
precisely how offensive they were and how large the penalties should
be. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg noted, the FCC had determined that
the swearing in "Saving Private Ryan" was OK - even though a lot of
stations bleeped the words anyway - whereas the swearing by blues
musicians in a Martin Scorsese documentary was a threat to civilized
discourse.

This despite the fact that the actors in "Saving Private Ryan" were
reciting scripted lines, while the blue musicians were just making
offhand comments. Of course, the musicians were not involved in
pretending to kill Nazis when they used the unacceptable words.

Justice John Paul Stevens inquired about the word "dung." The
government lawyer said "probably" that would not be offensive. Stevens
also suggested an interesting standard: If a joke was funny enough, it
could escape sanctions. Although the FCC is already at work on its
funny-o-meter, the government had no comment.


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