..and you think censorship is silly - sigh!

Parents group complains about ABC's Live 8 show

A parents group on Thursday accused the ABC television network of violating broadcast decency standards when it failed to censor all profanity uttered during the recent Live 8 concert, an event held to draw attention to poverty in poor countries.

The Parents Television Council, which has filed numerous complaints about potentially indecent material on television, asked the Federal Communications Commission to levy a fine on ABC stations for failing to censor the July 2 performance of "Who Are You" by The Who.

"The program was aired on a tape delay, which should have given ABC ample time to edit all obscenities from the concert prior to broadcast," Tim Winter, PTC executive director, said in a statement.

The complaint was filed against the Washington, D.C., ABC affiliate WJLA, but the council asked the FCC to take action against all the ABC stations that aired the profanity, according to a spokeswoman for the organization.

U.S. law bars radio and television broadcasters from airing obscene material and are limited to airing indecent material, typically profanity or sexually explicit content, to late night hours when children are less likely to be in the audience.

"Unfortunately, one inappropriate phrase sung by one performer was initially missed and made it into the East Coast network feed," ABC said in a statement. "It was subsequently edited out of the West Coast feed."

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.

The FCC in the past has gone both ways in handling profanity on television. It decided against taking action when ABC aired the profanity-laden film "Saving Private Ryan." Yet the agency said NBC stations violated the law when Irish U2 rocker Bono swore during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards program, however issued no fines.




what urks me most is that these people who complain about profanity at a rock concert, have no problems taking their children to see violent movies and tv shows - ugh!!!

Unfortunately it is the tiny minority of whinging arseholes who manage to win and get things cut and bleeped and banned rather than just choosing not to watch/listen

Oh geeze - I just transferred more Live 8 to my network and both my daughter and myself got tired of being protected from ourselves by all the fcuking bleeping going on

Kathleen

These fools should realize that their kids probably hear "worse" at school than on tv.

and the bleeping even draws attention to it in the first place.


it's amazing how warped some parents can get in an effor to 'protect' their children. My former brother in law would not tolerate any raised voices in the presence of his toddler daughter. We are not talking arguing, but loud voices/raised voices. Particularly weird during family get-togethers were there is lots of talking and often chit chat can get rather passionate. He'd shush us if we get too loud and on repeat offenses, he'd take his daughter and leave the room.

The more parents stop their children from having access to something the more the children will want it, the allure of the forbidden. If the parents didn't care as much the children wouldn't bother if they heard a few "bad" words on tv or saw some fake violence.

One specific thing here that annoys me is the new 12A rating given to films, similar I assume to the PG13 rating in the US. What good is it if a parent is with the child or not when watching the film? Are they meant to cover the childs eyes/ears to stop them seeing/hearing parts? I know it implies the parents views first, but the requirement is the parent accompanies the child.

I understand the regular PG rating, young children may need someone to comfort them if they get scared and such, but the PG13/12A ratings were simply created to get more young children into films previously deemed too "bad" for them to see, simply a money making scheme.


We live in what should be a civilised society, a place where no words should be deemed as bad simply for one possible meaning, or where someone could raise a child to know the difference between right and wrong instead of letting the entertainment industry raise that child and then complain when they don't like something about it.

Some people genuinely are fools.

Reminds me of the Dutch comedian Youp van 't Hek, who once talked about kids in Africa. He said something as much as 'those kids are dying over there, god damnit'. He got complaints about this profanity. People can be so moronic.

my language is absolutely diabolical. I need to keep reminding myself to watch what I'm sayign in front of kids and outside my circle of friends and it's been like that since I was about 10, if the parents think their kids don't know the words **** and shit by now then they'#re either idiots or live in some weird place where the water's spiked.

in the end, it's a word, it hasn't led to the moral disintegration of me or anyone else who swears as much as me and I'm sure it won';t lead to the moral disintegration of them.

**** censorship.

Ice