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?