It’s hard to remember the time when profanity on stage or screen could get you arrested. These days, with profanity so prevalent on cable television and in rap and rock music, it’s more likely that spewing curses earns you a pile of money.
Not so in 1964, when the famously foul comedian Lenny Bruce was convicted on obscenity charges after a performance at Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. After the arrest, Bruce had trouble finding work. He died of a drug overdose in 1966 at age 40. Last month New York Gov. George Pataki pardoned Bruce, after a yearlong 1st Amendment-inspired campaign championed by Bruce’s daughter and comedians Robin Williams and the Smothers Brothers.
That crusade brings to mind a new campaign by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, who wants the help of Congress to crack down on violations of the agency’s broadcast decency standards. What incensed Powell and others is the FCC enforcement division’s ruling after rock star Bono uttered the f-word on live television in his celebratory remarks after he won a Golden Globe last year.
After a national parents’ group protested, the enforcement division ruled, essentially, that stations should not be penalized for allowing that word on network television as long as it’s “fleeting and isolated” and not referring to sex.
Powell vehemently disagrees and wants the FCC commissioners to overturn the decision. “Nothing hurts me more than when I hear, `The FCC says it’s OK,’ ” he said. “The FCC does not say it’s OK. Nothing in the decision is meant to imply that.”
Powell said he would ask Congress to increase fines by at least tenfold for broadcasters who allow some obscenities on the air. Fines are now capped at $27,500 for a single violation and $275,000 for a series of breaches. Presumably, Powell is thinking of a fine upwards of $250,000 for a single violation. U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said he’ll introduce legislation to dramatically increase those fines, hoping that it will send a message to broadcasters.
That’s a mistake.
The rise of gratuitous, coarse language on television–for that matter, in real life– is lamentable. Those who have access to print and air need to take seriously their obligations to readers and viewers. (Chicago Tribune policy is not to print obscenities, profanities and vulgarities unless they are in direct quotes and they are essential to advancing a story of significant news interest.)
Threatening huge fines for using the wrong word smacks of censorship and Lenny Bruce-era overkill.
Remember, this whole fuss is over a single word, uttered once in the ebullience of the moment. The decision by the enforcement division didn’t declare carte blanche for bad language on television; far from it. A broadcaster who intentionally or repeatedly uses the word blurted out by Bono would not be protected by the FCC’s allowance for “fleeting and isolated” remarks.
There is one approach to dealing with offensive language: Change the channel and register a protest with the station.
It’s not a perfect answer. When profanities on TV catch parents unawares, they are deeply aggravating. But viewers who are offended by the often witless and indiscriminate use of vulgar language still have that ultimate power to turn away. That’s better than an ill-conceived throwback to the bad old days when even the mildest expletives could bring consequences far out of line with the offense.
