Tits in a Twist

TV Stations Cancel 'Saving Private Ryan'

Maybe this will teach the FCC to heap excessive fines on broadcasters who allow the accidental appearance of bare flesh or a curse word during a live event. When a major network can't air a film that, whatever you think of it (and I called it Steven Spielberg masturbating on film back in 1998, when Shakespeare in Love beat it for Best Picture), celebrates the contributions and heroism of veterans--when a network can't air such a film on Veteran's Day--something is seriously wrong. It's time for the FCC to start policing the airwaves to ensure that broadcasters don't present fiction as fact--CBS, Fox, can you hear me?--rather than going on witch hunts against entertainers who let the occasional f-bomb fly.

I applaud the ABC stations that refused to air the movie tonight. They may not intend it this way, but their action looks to me like a protest against the FCC's recent behavior. As the AP explains:

The FCC has stepped up enforcement of its decency standards for certain content following this year's Super Bowl halftime show, in which one of Janet Jackson's breasts was exposed.

Profane speech, which is barred from broadcast radio and television between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., is defined by the FCC as language that is "so grossly offensive to members of the public who actually hear it as to amount to a nuisance," or epithets that tend "to provoke violent resentment."

The guidelines say the context in which such material appears is of critical importance.

One might think that the context of a war movie would make it okay for the incidental "fuck" to find its way into America's living rooms. Won't there be a little graphic in the corner warning viewers that this program is "TV MA" and hence the skittish should look elsewhere for their evening dose of mind numbing?

Oh well. It's a scary new world in which we live.

Cole cited recent FCC actions and last week's re-election of President Bush as reasons for replacing "Saving Private Ryan" on Thursday with a music program and the TV movie "Return to Mayberry."

"We're just coming off an election where moral issues were cited as a reason by people voting one way or another and, in my opinion, the commissioners are fearful of the new Congress," Cole said.

Forget the fact that broadcasters are now fearful of the power of the moral values crowd, that they think Bush's election somehow gives a mandate to prudes and sensitive-eared folk everywhere. "Return to Mayberry?" If this is where the country is headed, maybe it really IS time to move to Canada.