The Los Angeles Times‘ Martin Miller is clutching his pearls a wee bit hard with his latest column, wherein he bemoans the persistent creep of profanity on network television. Now, I’m not saying that the news should be full of doom and gloom and Iraq and Drunky McStagger, but as with the IKEA hubbub here in south Florida, I do think there are more important things to worry about than a few curse words on television.
But when did that ever stop our friends in the mainstream media?
“It’s a clear path from not too long ago where we had standards for language to where there are practically no standards anymore,” said Tim Winter, president of the Los Angeles-based [Parents Television Council] whose 1.1 million members generate the overwhelming majority of complaints the government receives about TV’s offensiveness. “We’re talking about broadcast television in prime time, not a New York taxi stop, not a football locker room, not the way a vice president may talk in private.”
The trend has occurred during a time when the major networks are battling for audience in a freewheeling, crowded entertainment universe. Rougher words can mean the difference between being seen as hip and relevant and being square and extinct. In fact, if you compare what passes for uncouth on nighttime TV with popular music, adult-oriented movies and snarky Web sites, it’s practically an oasis of civility.
Words such as “hell” or “damn” that only a generation ago were practically verboten are common today across the prime-time schedules of all the major networks. From 1995 to 2005, the percentage of shows that threw around sexually derived vulgarities shot up from 41 percent to 64 percent, while shows that incorporated scatological vulgarities rose from 58 to 83 percent, according to the PTC, which tracks offensive language, sexual content and violence on television.
In fact, only one of the so-called seven dirty words — as coined by comedian George Carlin in the 1970s — has not been aired on prime-time broadcast TV, if one includes ABC’s showing of the graphic World War II drama “Saving Private Ryan.” Three of the words have been spoken in scripted prime-time shows.
Now, if I remember my middle school American history well enough, I believe the Puritans fled from England to America to escape religious persecution. So now, four hundred years later, apparently their descendants are trying hard to persecute the rest of us.
Folks, look: it’s just words. Whether or not they are decent or indecent is immaterial and subjective to boot. More to the point, if you don’t want to hear the words, turn off the TV or change the channel. Send the kids out to play or something. You think they’re not seeing worse (albeit maybe not “dirty words” when they’re playing World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto or just throwing the football around in the backyard? If you really believe that, then you’re farther gone than I thought.
I have no doubt that the people braying the loudest about obscenity on television are the ones who are voting for the so-called “family values” candidates, i.e., Republicans. You know, the party of Larry Craig and Dick “Go Fuck Yourself” Cheney and Mark Foley and David Vitter. The party of “less government” that wants to have government tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies and gays/lesbians that they can’t marry or adopt and all of us what we can and can’t watch on our own fucking televisions. Less government, my fat white ass …
Hey, Puritans — keep your laws off my television.
