Mother-F@#$ing C@#$suckers

Networks, stations challenge FCC in court
They contend ‘indecent’ language rules are applied capriciously, vaguely

Isn't it about the time the FCC grows up? This is a direct quote from the FCC: "Our precedent at the time of the broadcast did not clearly indicate that the commission would take enforcement action against an isolated use of the 'S-word.'"

The "S-word," they say? Have we learned nothing from Harry Potter? The others all call the Dark Lord "You Know Who;" only Harry calls him Voldemort, because he understands that to name a thing plainly gives you power over it. So it is with those who fear swearing and other direct language; they teach their children that certain words and ideas have a power far beyond their real value, such that words like shit and fuck can shock them, while words like penis and vagina can bamboozle them.

How can that be desirable? I understand that parents wish to keep their children innocent, but there are limits to how innocent one can (or should) be. If your kid hears someone call someone else a shithead, though--and that is, in fact, one of the complaints involved in this suit--do you think that gasping and waging a letter-writing campaign over it will be half as effective as calmly saying, "He's not a nice man--nice people don't talk about other people that way" and treating it as a teachable moment rather than a crisis?

I hope the networks win. Rules that single out a few words as too bad to be heard by sensitive ears only give both those words and the people who fear them more power than they deserve.