Losing Ground on Dirty Language

Earlier this month, the New York Times ran a front-page story about the erosion in prime-time televisions language standards thats expected to occur during the upcoming season. We wont know exactly how serious that erosion will be until it happens, of course, but its among the safest of bets that it will take place.

Early indications are that many, if not all, of George Carlins infamous seven dirty words will soon be acceptable on prime-time broadcast television. Even more poignant: Television will begin taking the Lords name in vain.

It was bound to happen, I suppose. For more than a decade the networks have grown increasingly permissive where cursing is concerned, and any close observer of television could tell you that when standards begin to slip, they just continue slipping, period. Its Newtons first law of motion filtered through a cathode-ray tube.

Currently, TVs leading coarse-language innovators appear to be veteran producer Steven Bochco, whose new project is the ABC drama Philly, and Aaron Sorkin, mastermind of NBCs The West Wing.

Its probable that Bochcos NYPD Blue has brought more vulgarisms into the prime-time vernacular than any other broadcast program. With Philly, Bochco wanted to go where neither Blue nor any other ABC series has gone before, but the network vetoed his proposed use of bullst.

Its a pretty silly thing, he told the Times, when you look at it in the context of a show like The Sopranos, which people by the millions tune in to, to [lose] that argument with ABC broadcast standards. He might, however, still win the war: Reporter Jim Rutenberg notes that Bochco said he would probably try to get the word [into] another episode.

CBS, by the way, allowed six uses of bullst last spring in its presentation of On Golden Pond, so in the history of prime time, Bochco will go down as, at best, the Buzz Aldrin and not the Neil Armstrong of this expletive.

Meanwhile, Rutenberg writes that Sorkin hopes to break a longstanding network taboo thisseason: he wants a character to curse in a way that uses the Lords name in vain. To Sorkin, broadcast television [ought to] grow up as the rest of the country [has]...Theres absolutely no reason why we cant use the language of adulthood in programs that are about adults.

The issue is not why television cant use the language of adulthood, its why it shouldnt. Hollywood is trying to turn mythology into fact: Because cable i.e., The Sopranos is doing it, we must also do it to remain competitive. How silly. Have you ever turned away from a TV show because it wasnt vulgar enough? Have you ever known a single person who felt this way?

There is no demand, no need for this. Producers just want to be offensive because they can.

How do their bosses excuse themselves? Jeff Zucker, NBCs entertainment president, told Rutenberg, We do have a responsibility, and I do think were a broadcaster in the broadest sense. On the other hand, we have to open our eyes and understand we have to adapt.

In other words, the networks will be responsible in the sense that they wont go too far too fast, but theyll also adapt, meaning theyll eventually permit it all. So theyll relax standards a bit this season, a bit more next season, and by, say, May 2006, who knows what the standards will be, or if therell be standards worthy of the name.

The pressure is on. Rutenberg reports that CBS executives say that writers are submitting scriptsthat include every crude word imaginable, including one considered to be on the furthermost reaches of decorum (lets just say it has to do with the making of stem cells).

Where, oh where, is the FCC? Asleep at the switch, unfortunately.

Broadcast indecency, which covers patently offensive treatment of sexual or excretory organs or activities, is permitted only between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in other words, its forbidden in the first two hours of prime time, yet the FCC has said nothing about the violations to date.

Interestingly, while the relevant law also bars the kind of profane language that Sorkin is pushing for, the section of the FCC web site concerning obscenity - which can never be broadcast - and indecency doesnt discuss profanity. When I had an assistant ask the reason for the discrepancy, and what FCC policy is on the likes of g-damn, he was given the runaround, but no answer.

Memo to George W. Bush: It would take one phone call to FCC chairman Michael Powell to simply remind him, since obviously he needs reminding, that the airwaves belong to the public, not Sorkin, Bochco, or NBC, and its the FCCs job to protect the publics interest.