"Gosh-golly, I've been shot!"
Hot on the heels of BusterGate, PBS finds itself preemptively censoring reality once again. An upcoming Frontline documentary, A Company of Soldiers, is an up-close look at the dangers facing the U.S. Army's 8th Cavalry Regiment stationed in Baghdad. As you might imagine, soldiers in the heat of battle use some foul language. The documentary contains 13 expletives. Normally, PBS sends out a "hard feed" of such programs aired late in the evening, with a warning about content that may be offensive to some viewers.
Amidst uncertainty surrounding the FCC's standards for language and content, and the House voting to raise fines for indecency to half a million dollars, PBS is distributing the censored version by default.
Stations can still arrange to record the journalistically unblemished version — if they sign a waiver absolving PBS of any obligation to kick in for the possible $500,000 fine. The price of free speech is getting really expensive, isn't it?
Out here on the internets, I have a message for the FCC: FUCK CENSORSHIP
Thank you! Thanks for coming out. Remember to tip your waitstaff. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
NewsHour: Embattled PBS [RealAudio]
Blogcritics.org: Frontline fights the FCC
posted by Chuck Olsen @ 8:36 PM |
| 
6 Comments:
Whoa, let's watch the language! This isn't Power Line!
How many posters have been banned? How many posts deleted? Qite an example you're setting. You're not in any position to complain.
You're not anti-censorship, you're anti-conservative.
I'm happy about it too. Because the longer you and your elitist chums reinforce each other's whacked opinions without allowing anyone to straighten you out, the longer you'll continue to do things like nominate Kerry and pick Doc Dean to lead you.
You are ensuring your own insignificance and its because of the political correctness you feel compelled to enforce. With no new ideas, with no discussion, with no correction when policy obviously fails, you are truely doomed.
Free speech !=subsidized speech, end PBS now.
You're right -- We are anti-conservative. That's why we're liberals.
But we're also anti-censorship. But some things cross a line which we will not tolerate. Disagreeing with our opinions is fine. Personal attacks are not.
This is getting boring. But I'll bite, just this once and answer your questions.
1. 1
2. Probably less than ten.
Political correctness is the root of all of the problems? How does that fit in? Please make sense of that statement.
Failed policy? We talk about that every day. :)
Seriously, there are a few people who post intelligent opposing viewpoints on this site without frothing at the mouth and calling names. We're cool with that... we may not agree on all points, but we're up for the discussion.
That being said, I am curious to know what you think about political correctness ensuring our insignificance.
For the record, only Swiftee (TJ Swift) has been banned. Swiftee was a notorious troll, but what got him banned was a personal attack.
Censorship... oh, please.
Oh no, we're feeding the troll!
It's difficult to have a rational conversation when a few of the people commenting here are locked into a fundamentally different conception of government and society. I'm talking about people who seem to want to dismantle the government, particularly the part of government meant to ensure a basic minimum standard of health, education, and life. So these people want to do away with the department of education, PBS, social security, taxes, etc. -- a wildly radical, negative fantasy world.
If you want to believe in that, fine. But we don't have much to talk about, because I live in the world that exists now. It's a world of rationality, diversity, competing interests and compromise.
It's a world where capitalism thrives but doesn't run rampant. It's a world where we come together to protect people that fall through the cracks. It's a world where the power of government (and our current government weilds unprecedented power) is kept in check by the will of the people government should represent. It's a world where the power of corporations (and our current government favors corporate profit over the well-being of citizens) is kept in check by those same people.
Are we getting anywhere? Can we meet somewhere in the middle? Can we not agree on any common goals?
It's also hard to have a conversation when commenters get off on calling us names and derailing conversation - rather than discuss issues brought up in the post.
Post a Comment
<< Home