PTC finds increase in harsh profanity on TV

Story by AFA Journal Staff. Sources cited for News of Interest indicate source of basic information only. January 2009

  The Parents Television Council found that profanity during primetime broadcast television has not only increased since 1998, but that harsher profanity has quickly risen in prominence and pervasiveness.
  In 1972, the late George Carlin’s infamous “Seven Words” comedy routine led to the Supreme Court case that affirmed the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce the broadcast decency law.  Today, six of those seven words have aired unedited on broadcast TV during primetime. On November 4, the Court heard arguments in the so-called “fleeting” profanity case (FCC v. Fox) concerning use of the “f”-word and “s”-word on primetime broadcast TV.
  “Our research is shocking and especially troubling to parents,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “Not only are harsher profanities like the “f”-word and “s”-word airing during hours when children are likely to be in the viewing audience, but they are airing with greater frequency.”
  Almost 1,000 expletives were aired during primetime on broadcast TV in 2007 – nearly twice as many as in 1998.
  The V-chip ratings and content descriptors are inadequate to protect children and families from offensive language. Nearly a quarter (24%) of the programs that aired the “f”-word and 25% of the programs that aired the “s”-word in 2007 did not carry the L-descriptor, which would have triggered the mechanism in the V-chip to allow families to block the programs from coming into their homes.
  “Our results show that when an expletive is introduced on television, usage of the word becomes commonplace in fairly short order,” said Winter. “Then the broadcast networks feel the need to up the ante with even more offensive profanity.  The result is that there is a significant increase in the overall use of profanity on the public airwaves, and an escalation in the offensiveness of the words used.  While certain expletives may become ‘commonplace’ to network executives, they must keep in mind that most parents do not want their children bombarded by those words during hours when they’re most likely to be in the audience.”
  “If concerned parents and citizens do not speak out to their public servants about this immediately, we are certain to see even more harsh language appear during primetime broadcast hours in the months and years to come,” said Winter.
  www.parentstv.org, 10/29/08