ViolaLee
06-07-2007, 04:45 PM
An American judge has given warning that a landmark court ruling on the use of "fleeting expletives" could open the gates to a flood of celebrity 'F-words' on primetime television.
US networks were celebrating today after a US appeals court threw out a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling against the Fox television network, saying that the agency's new policy on indecency was "arbitrary and capricious".
At issue was Fox's broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards in December, 2002, at which the singer Cher used the phrase "F*** 'em", and the same awards show a year later at which Nicole Richie asked: "Have you ever tried to get cow s**** out of a Prada purse? It’s not so f***ing simple.”
Fox, backed by other television networks and stations, appealed and yesterday the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, found in its favour, ruling that the FCC had failed to explain properly why it had changed its long-term policy on the fleeting use of profanity. Fox is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times and Times Online.
The court rejected the FCC's policy that the words fuck or shit always had a sexual or excretory connotation.
And the most interesting part is that the court noted that Bush and Cheney used the words fuck and shit in ways not having to do with sex and excrement.
LOL! If our P and VP say it, it must be OK! LOL!
Specifically it noted that both President Bush and Vice-President Cheney were on record as having used those words in a non-literal way, Mr Bush when he told Tony Blair that the United Nations needed to "get Syria to stop Hezbollah to stop doing this s***' and Mr Cheney when he told a senator, on the floor of the Senate, to "f*** yourself'.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1888983.ece
US networks were celebrating today after a US appeals court threw out a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling against the Fox television network, saying that the agency's new policy on indecency was "arbitrary and capricious".
At issue was Fox's broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards in December, 2002, at which the singer Cher used the phrase "F*** 'em", and the same awards show a year later at which Nicole Richie asked: "Have you ever tried to get cow s**** out of a Prada purse? It’s not so f***ing simple.”
Fox, backed by other television networks and stations, appealed and yesterday the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, found in its favour, ruling that the FCC had failed to explain properly why it had changed its long-term policy on the fleeting use of profanity. Fox is owned by News Corporation, parent company of The Times and Times Online.
The court rejected the FCC's policy that the words fuck or shit always had a sexual or excretory connotation.
And the most interesting part is that the court noted that Bush and Cheney used the words fuck and shit in ways not having to do with sex and excrement.
LOL! If our P and VP say it, it must be OK! LOL!
Specifically it noted that both President Bush and Vice-President Cheney were on record as having used those words in a non-literal way, Mr Bush when he told Tony Blair that the United Nations needed to "get Syria to stop Hezbollah to stop doing this s***' and Mr Cheney when he told a senator, on the floor of the Senate, to "f*** yourself'.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1888983.ece