Ken Burns, the creator of a new PBS documentary series, called The War, is going to be in the centre of a controversy quite soon. New PBS guidelines insist that any “obscenity” is not only bleeped out, but a digital mask is placed over the mouth of someone saying whatever the “obscene” words might be.
The documentary in question is about the Second World War, interviews with veterans and such. Soldiers have that which might be described as a colorful vocabulary. So do sailors, marines and even aviators.
PBS is applying very strict “obscenity” guidelines to any programming before 10 pm, because the Federal Communications Commission in the US are slapping fines on the broadcasters who allow “obscene” words to be transmitted. This is symptomatic of a general tightening of America’s collective sphincters thanks to the religious right wing-nuts.
Rather than slap a pejorative of “obscene’ on certain words I prefer to use the term coarse language. Obscene, like Pornographic are judgmental and heavily loaded terms of control and censorship. To a starving population, a film of an all you can eat buffet could be considered pornographic. To a very orthodox Jew, fully spelling the word God, is obscene to the point of blasphemous.
I much prefer the term ‘erotica’ to describe images of a sexually-themed nature and ‘coarse’ to describe language of a common and harsh nature. They are not ideal terms, but obscenity, like pornography, is in the eye (and ear) of the beholder.
The PBS bleeping and masking on “The War” makes no sense to me. Not that I’m in favor of gratuitous coarse language, as my training in radio and television have sanitized my language beyond all possible redemption when I am in front of clients. In private, like every other human on the planet, I can and do use coarse language.
Which brings us to the use of coarse language in society and on the airwaves. The objective of the PBS fiat of foolishness is to prevent possible complaint to the FCC by people who are offended by coarse language or images that might be interpreted as coarse. Naturally, PBS does not want to get fined, as PBS is not swimming in cash, so they are covering their collective behinds.
There seems to be a deep-seated fear in America that precious children might hear or see language or images of language that are anything other than squeaky clean. Perhaps the fear is that their direct line to God and life everlasting in heaven will be tarnished irredeemably by hearing so much as one coarse term. Therefore they must be on guard at all times for anything that could jeopardize that pipe into Heaven as well as force their world-view on the rest of us.
I call it the “Tight-Assing of America” Anything contentious, unpleasant or earthy must be removed from view. This kind of blue-nosing results in the malicious re-editing of history and reality to remove various unpleasant truths like the Inquisition, the Crusades, institutional slavery or the Salem Witch Trials. I’m not going to mention other things like the Holocaust, 9/11 or starting wars in distant countries just because ‘our’ politics don’t quite mesh with theirs.
So, as a public service for all the blue-noses out there, here’s a bulletin: People swear. They use coarse language. The language you can hear on the playground is about the same as the language you will hear in a barracks or a locker room. Your precious little William or Melinda knows those words, plus a bunch more you don’t think they know.
Another bulletin? Hang on to your blue-nose, this one is a shocker: Your parents had sex at least the number of times that they had kids. That’s right, your parents did the nasty, quite possibly joyously, on a hot summers’ night after a couple of glasses of wine. Hell, they might have even done it just for the pure pleasure of it. I might hazard a guess they even did it before they were married. Ronald Regan did the deed with Nancy and even knocked her up before they were married.
I know, it is too vivid an image of Ronald and Nancy being all sweaty, flying clothes, stretching zippers and….I have to stop there before I cause too many shudders. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in my eyes.
No matter how hard the blue-nose brigade tries, The Children will find out about cuss words and sex and a bunch of other things like drinking, and drugs, despite your best efforts to put them in a bubble until they’re 40 years old. The Children might even find out that Voting After Thinking is possible.
What a parent is required to do is to teach them discretion. There is no need to cuss in front of old ladies or in church. There is no need to use fuck as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction and gerund. If you drop an anvil on your foot, you are perfectly entitled to cuss. You won’t go immediately to some pseudo-religious tight-ass Hell, no matter how doctrinaire your adherence to the Bible.
Put a warning on the front of Ken Burns’ The War. Caution people that the language will be coarse. Don’t run it at dinner time, as American parents have proven they haven’t the sense to control how their kids watch TV. But don’t try to sanitize the real stories of the Second World War, as told by the few left who were actually there. People and that includes The Children, must know that War is a violent, hideous, disgusting and occasionally noble endeavor that humans have been engaged in since we came out of the trees.
RoadDave 