More Insanity from the Bush Administration

On Thursday, February 17, 2005 NPR sent a letter to its affiliates telling them that if they aired Frontline's "A Company of Soldiers" and received complaints, NPR would NOT support the affiliate's defense. The problem seems to be worry that the unfiltered version of the piece contains profanity spoken by soldiers engaged in fire fights in Iraq just before the elections. Rather, a sanitized version is going to be fed to the stations; if they want the original, they have to ask for it which puts the responsibility squarely on the local affiliates if someone complains.

Michael Powell refuses to say if the affiliates can expect lawsuits, but tells them to be "courageous" and air the program. Such support and clarification cannot go unremarked!

Of course there will be complaints because the conservative watchdog groups will be "locked and loaded" for just that purpose. The sanitizing of soldiers' language masks an obscene war. Rather than hear the real fear, rage, or confusion that the soldiers' profanity expresses, we will hear a very different message--a blunted one that is easier to hear; one that allows us to glibly "support our troops" (by keeping them right where they are in harm's way.)

This is, in my mind, a blatant effort to control Frontline for political purposes. ABC will show the fictional war story, Saving Private Ryan with its profanity in tact. Now, who are we kidding here? Add to that the FCC's idiotic hair-splitting in its response to Bono's expletive used at the Golden Globe Awards. Here's the core of their argument:

As a threshold matter, the material aired during the Golden Globe Awards program does not describe or depict sexual and excretory activities and organs. The word fucking may be crude and offensive, but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities. Rather, the performer used the word fucking as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation. Indeed, in similar circumstances, we have found that offensive language used as an insult rather than as a description of sexual or excretory activity or organs is not within the scope of the Commission's prohibition of indecent program content. [See the entire decision here]

The FCC can twist and turn to excuse the irrelevant speech of a rock and roll star, but it cannot commit to protecting legitimate and important speech on the part of Frontline/NPR. The agenda is clear.