Happy Independence Day, everybody. Have fun barbecuing, drinking beer and lighting things on fire. Or, you could be like us and sit at home, reviewing a copy of the iPod Constitution.
Brooke is celebrating her independence from Bob this week, and she opens the show with a bizarre bit of audio editing. There’s the usual “This is “On the Media”, and I’m Brooke Gladstone” thing, but following that, there’s an excerpt from some of the news coverage of George Carlin’s death. “Bleep!”, it says. “A word for excrement!” followed by Brooke saying “Bob Garfield is away this week.”
I’m trying to figure out what she’s doing here – is that a “Shit! I have to do this whole radio show by myself!”?, or is it a “Shit yeah! It’s indecency day, and I’m covering it all by my lonesome!”?
Oh good – it’s the latter. Like me, Brooke just can’t resist talking about those words that she’s not supposed to talk about. However, TV today is full of words that the Supreme Court once deemed not ok for broadcast. This, my friends is why safe harbor hours are a beautiful thing.
(Quick note to point out what just happened here at R/S headquarters when Matthew got out of the shower and realized that I was the one who got to recap a Brooke-only week where she covers indecency, which is one of Matthew’s favorite things. He proceeded to whine all seven dirty words(and possibly a few that Carlin hadn’t even considered) in my general direction. Now he’s sitting next to me on the couch, whining up close. Brooke, I think he likes it when you’re indecent. Bob, I think you might should come keep me some company. This could be a while.)
Anyway, use of the F-word pop up on TV constantly – like on the HBO show “Deadwood”, a show that Miami Harold TV critic Glenn Garvin recognizes for using the f-bomb so much that an FPM (fucks-per-minute) counter was needed. The average total? 1.5 f-bombs per minute. That’s impressive.
Now, celebrities can get away with saying some raunchy things on-air, thanks to the FCC’s “fleeting expletives” rule. In just the first half of 2006, the FCC got 327,000 complaints, a lot of which some from Parents Television Council, a million-member organization that has an easy complaint-lodging mechanism on its Web site.
Parents are upset, as no matter how good their child-rearing skills are, their kids are exposed to the media’s indecency. And the media? They’re not terribly sorry about it. Here’s what “NYPD Blue” creator Steven Bochco had to say about it:
“I never needed to show anybody’s ass. I never needed to show anybody’s breasts. I never needed to use the word ass-[BLEEP]. Those were creative choices. And I regret all kinds of things I’ve done, but I’ve never regretted them conceptually. I usually regret them simply because, for one reason or another, the execution wasn’t good enough. “
Ah, Steven Bocho, that’s the problem with a lot of television.
“On the Media” seems to be in summer vacation mode this week. There are only four stories, and one of them is a re-run. It’s alright – sometimes, everyone just needs a [bleep]ing break.
This recap was written by Kerry, who is playing the fun Memphis game “Fireworks or Gunshots” while Matthew curses his computer. Happy Fourth of July, y’all.
(Photo from Jeff Holbrook’s flickr.)
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