Saving Janet's Nipple

Radley Balko | September 24, 2007

David Harsanyi, whose book on the Nanny State is now in bookstores (as well as excerpted in our November issue), reports that the new Ken Burns joint on World War II will be sanitized so GI's language won't offend L. Brent Bozell III and his army of prudes:

Rather than risk a $325,000 fine per word from the FCC — if the offensive words are broadcast between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. – PBS provided two cuts of War and allowed stations to decide which one to air.

Here’s the thing, The FCC allowed the same langauge to be used in a ABC prime-time showing of Steven Speilberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” — a masterful, but fictional, account of WW 2 — a couple of years ago. In my book, I discuss the often arbitrary nature of the FCC’s take on speech.

In any event, which red-blooded American is going to complain about PBS airing a soldier using the acronym FUBAR? Does anyone else find it ironic that a film documenting the great sacrifices of freedom will have the words of the very men who fought for it edited out?

Comments

|9.24.07 @ 8:38AM|#

For what it is worth (not much), I am opposed to the silly, prudish censorship the FCC engages in.

Yes, I do find it ironic that the "greatest generation's" words are too hot to handle by today's hip-hop, nappy-headed-ho generation, at least in the opinion of our FCC overlords.

|9.24.07 @ 8:46AM|#

Not yet 9am, but I've already vomited today. Thank you, Radley Balko!

|9.24.07 @ 8:55AM|#

The reviews I have read are already in shock that the film shows how Americans in World War II actually killed people and didn't take prisoners and hated their enemies. Oh my God the humanity. You mean you can't fight a war, I mean a real war where the enemy is really dangerous and determined not some bush war against a bunch of savages, without doing some nasty things? If only CNN had been around back then, they could have reported it all.

|9.24.07 @ 8:58AM|#

"I mean a real war where the enemy is really dangerous and determined not some bush war against a bunch of savages.."

That's pretty funny.

|9.24.07 @ 9:17AM|#

Which is worse? Those that think American murdering prisoners should not be reported. Or those that think that it's honky dorey.

Or maybe it's a guilty white boy that sees every chapter of history as an illustration of racism.

VM|9.24.07 @ 9:22AM|#

Shaving Ryan's Privates?

|9.24.07 @ 9:23AM|#

Which is worse? Those that think American murdering prisoners should not be reported. Or those that think that it's honky dorey.

Tough call.

I enjoyed the Civil War series Burns did though, so I'm definitely watching this one. Also I was glad to read in an interview that he said it was "insane" to compare World War II to the Iraq War, which is good to shut up certain people with.

|9.24.07 @ 9:27AM|#

Comparing WW2 to the Iraq War can be quite useful.

But only if we've the Germans.

Just one more push in Saddam-grad, and THEN we'll win and be able to provide that extra spport they need in North Afghanafrica.

|9.24.07 @ 9:39AM|#

Yes Joe, Petreus like Paulus is surrounded and running out of supplies and about to surrender is entire force. Its just like Stalingrad, complete with a million US casualties.

|9.24.07 @ 9:42AM|#

It wasn't hunky dory for people to murder prisoners. It happened, but that doesn't make it right. That said, I am not going to judge the people who did it. I wasn't there and I can't honestly say that if I was, I wouldn't have done the same thing. Also, it should be noted that the US took lots of prisoners in Europe and treated them generally pretty well. In the Pacific they didn't take prisoners but the Japanese were barbaric beyond belief to our prisoners and rarely offered surrender. It wasn't a case of people shooting prisoners as much as it was the Japanese just not surrendering.

The Artist Formerly Known as T|9.24.07 @ 9:48AM|#

""Here's the thing, The FCC allowed the same langauge to be used in a ABC prime-time showing of Steven Speilberg's "Saving Private Ryan""

You mean to tell me that a government entity is not uniformly enforcing the laws they themselves created ??? This is not the country I grew up in !!!!

|9.24.07 @ 9:50AM|#

Oh, well, if we don't suffer a million casualties, I guess it can't be a strageic bludnder, sapping our resources and attention from more useful pursuits in an effort to salvage the chief executive's pride, or a demonstration of ideological stubbornness overcoming sound strategic judgement.

|9.24.07 @ 9:58AM|#

If we show people how horrible war is, they might start demanding that we only engage in necessary wars.

SIV|9.24.07 @ 9:58AM|#

Comparing WW2 to the Iraq War can be quite useful.

But only if we've the Germans.

Yeah joe we are the Nazis and Bush is like a short bus version of Hitler. So is al Qaeda the Allies? or are they the Jews?

|9.24.07 @ 10:00AM|#

If we show people how horrible war is, they might start demanding that we only engage in necessary wars.

Which is why we'll never be allowed to show people how horrible war is...

|9.24.07 @ 10:00AM|#

Any irony is diminished by the unlikelihood that any of the GIs who used that foul language in their correspondence or personal accounts would have expected, or likely wanted, it to be presented unedited in public media.

ed|9.24.07 @ 10:05AM|#

Like all Burns marathons previously aired, this one had me snoozing before the first half hour. It never fails. Is it the music? Some weird thing with the lighting? The plodding, maddeningly slow pace? I'm yawning just writing this.

|9.24.07 @ 10:08AM|#

ed,

It's his dumbass haircut. It's narcoleptical.

SIV|9.24.07 @ 10:11AM|#

"Empire of the Air" was really good but then it was one of his shorter films.

|9.24.07 @ 10:14AM|#

It's definitely slower and more soporific than his Civil War series, ed.

Then again, I took a bunch of Benadryl before turning it on, so that might...zzzzzzz.

ed|9.24.07 @ 10:18AM|#

Can't...stop...yawning....

bromo98|9.24.07 @ 10:24AM|#

Based on how current military are treated when they try to board an aircraft in uniform, it doesn't surprise me at all that there would be heavy editing and fear about showing this piece.
There is no 'one cure fits all' here. I would want to view the whole piece unedited. Do I respect the fact that like Umbriel said, most GI's would prbably not want all they said and did on public display? Yes to that one too. But it's a shame that it's not really fear of public reaction - it's a fear of a fine from the FCC and/or not being shown on some of the affiliates that is really driving the edited version release.

Rhywun|9.24.07 @ 10:33AM|#

I hope they censor any smoking too; I wouldn't want to see that.

fyodor|9.24.07 @ 10:46AM|#

A) Radley, from where did you excerpt Harsanyi's reportage?

B) CALLING ALL COLORADANS!! Haranyi discusses (and signs) his book at the LoDo Denver Tattered Cover tomorrow night at 7:30!!! Be there or be a Statist!!!!

Doctor Duck|9.24.07 @ 10:48AM|#

complain about PBS airing a soldier using the acronym FUBAR

Seriously, this is bleeped? How could they treat that any differently than SNAFU, which has exactly the same parentage? If they do, TARFU, baby.

|9.24.07 @ 11:45AM|#

Joe,

"Sapping our resources" ain't even in the same galaxy as "forcing a million-man army in the field to surrender". Get a clue.

|9.24.07 @ 12:15PM|#

jkp
is that like "our precious bodily fluids"?

|9.24.07 @ 12:16PM|#

UMBRIEL
why presume to know what anyone else would or would not want?

|9.24.07 @ 12:16PM|#

Which is worse? Those that think American murdering prisoners should not be reported. Or those that think that it's honky dorey.

Where does someone who thinks brutality is an UNAVOIDABLE part of war fit in. That's one of the reasons to be leery of it.

|9.24.07 @ 12:47PM|#

Historical analogies tend to be silly and usually flawed, but if I had to choose one for Iraq its the Boer War and we're the British Empire.

fyodor|9.24.07 @ 12:52PM|#

One can and should recognize that murdering prisoners is bad and wrong. What conclusions are to be drawn from its having happened is another matter altogether. In the case depicted in the Burns doc last night at Guadalcanal, in lieu of info I'm not currently aware of, I'm inclined to think it was a reflection of the stress of brutal circumstances and not of official U.S. policy of the time. In light of that, what can one say but shit happens, especially during war (and ESPECIALLY at the front)?

fyodor|9.24.07 @ 12:54PM|#

Historical analogies tend to be silly and usually flawed

Does that mean there's little to nothing to be learned from history?

|9.24.07 @ 2:23PM|#

Everything I've seen by Burns is so mushy and sentimental, that I'm loathe to watch the WWII special. I've read that it fails to put the events it describes into context--in other words, it comes off as if G.I. Joe is just marching around the world for no reason.

I recall that the old series "The World At War." It doesn't sound like Ken Burns has added anything of substance.

|9.24.07 @ 2:24PM|#

I recall that the old series "The World At War" was excellent, is how that should read...

|9.24.07 @ 2:41PM|#

Does that mean there's little to nothing to be learned from history?

Nope, not at all. There are similarities, but saying one situation is exactly like the other is stupid.. Everytime I hear a leftie say Iraq is Vietnam, or a right winger say its World War II, I want to smack them.

SIV|9.24.07 @ 4:24PM|#

Cesar,

The RightWingers usually compare it to the Barbary Wars. Nota good analogy either but an example of us fighting a foreign war against muslims in the good ol' days.

|9.24.07 @ 5:00PM|#

DADIODADDY

I don't think I was being especially presumptuous. The social mores of the time were that profanity wasn't used in "public", however common it might have been in overwhelmingly male preserves like the barber shop, garage, or battlefield.

Some of them may well have changed their minds over the intervening half century, but I don't think that "irony" was one that many at the time were conscious of -- in contrast with, say, maintaining racial segregation in the armed forces in a war against racist regimes, which _was_ the focus of some controversy at the time.

|9.24.07 @ 5:06PM|#

I would add, though, that editing out FUBAR is plainly absurd. It's itself a euphemism, which has been explained to sensitive ears for half a century as meaning "_Fouled_ Up Beyond All Recognition".

Are they also planning to pixilate out any risque aircraft nose art?

|9.24.07 @ 7:56PM|#

The RightWingers usually compare it to the Barbary Wars. Nota good analogy either but an example of us fighting a foreign war against muslims in the good ol' days.

I've heard that, too. And thats actually better. But I think the Boer Wars is the best.

A war started in a distant, foreign land by a Conservative government to win an election that eventually caused a backlash of public opinion, leading to their defeat in the next election. It also made Great Britain very, very isolated on the world stage.

|9.24.07 @ 8:01PM|#

jkp,

Also, North Africa is in Africa, while Afghanistann is in Asia.

Also, North Africa is two English words, while Afghanistan is one.

Thank you so very much for your insightful response.

|9.24.07 @ 8:05PM|#

If we're talking about domestic politics, Iraq is like Gallipoli.

Except Churchill was a much better man than George Bush. He didn't confuse his pride with the national interest, and faced the facts eventually.

|9.24.07 @ 10:58PM|#

Hillary is looking better and better all the time...

|9.25.07 @ 12:50AM|#

Does anyone else find it ironic that a film documenting the great sacrifices of freedom will have the words of the very men who fought for it edited out?

huh?

WW2 was a war for American freedom?!?!

No fucking way....that would mean that the war in Iraq is a war for American freedom.