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This afternoon, in a live broadcast of the 37th Toyota Grand Prix Of Long Beach, Indy car racing league driver Marco Andretti had contact with another car out of the pits. Explaining what happened, Andretti said from inside his auto, loud and clear, “I have no fucking idea.” For a few minutes, the Versus announcers were silent. Then one of them said, “We apologize for the language.” And last week during a game, live cameras caught Lakers star Kobe Bryant calling referee Bennie Adams a “faggot” after being whistled for what the basketball star thought was an unjust foul. Gay rights organizations quickly demanded disciplinary measures, so NBA Commissioner David Stern slapped Bryant with a $100,000 fine. Kobe took to the airwaves to express remorse for uttering a homophobic slur. Both moments were recorded on national TV because so many sports events are covered live. But should they be? After all, a 7-second delay “bleep” button is available to delete offensive material from a live broadcast before it’s transmitted. The button cuts off the video circuit, or the sound, or both, between the recorder and the transmitter.
On the one hand, it can be argued that truly “live” events show people without PR cover, and I suspect both the Indy Racing League and the NBA would have covered up Andretti’s and Bryant’s moments. Now the world knows. On the other hand, many parents are watching sporting events with their kids. I find it interesting that the groups complaining the loudest about the increasing bad language on TV only take aim at scripted shows or live programming and at foul-mouthed writers, actors, musicians, and other celebrities. But sports heroes appear exempt. And does anyone doubt that this kind of anti-showbiz criticism is surely going to escalate during the 2012 presidential campaign when family values become an issue and Hollywood is regularly villainized.
Because of pressure from Congress, the Parents Television Council, and others groups, the FCC went after Fox television stations for two “fleeting expletive” incidents during the live broadcasts of the Billboard Music Awards in 2002 and 2003. The case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2009 upheld the FCC’s indecency policy by a 5-4 vote, concluding that the ban was consistent with its statutory obligations and not arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Justices sent the case back to the lower courts and, last July 13, the Second Circuit struck down the FCC regulations on First Amendment grounds for being “unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect.” The result is that Melissa Leo’s use of “fucking” during the live Golden Globes broadcast in January didn’t get NBC in trouble. But, for crissakes, what’s the effing big deal about just using the 7-second delay bleep button on all live events.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Is it time to end live TV sports coverage? Uh, no! But it’s time America TV grew up and acknowledged that in the heat of the moment adults use strong language – language that every single person from childhood hears every single day. It’s ridiculous that networks are fined when people say “fuck” or any other so-called offensive word.
I’ll take LIVE SPORTS over anything network-scripted.
I agree. This isn’t 1950 , people curse. Its part of life Get over it
People cursed in 1950, too. Maybe not as much, but fuck was certainly a part of the lexicon. We only think it was a more wholesome time because of crap like “Leave It to Beaver.” Television today is more reflective of a reality that has always existed.
Exactly! What the effing big deal about someone saying “shit” or “fuck” in the heat of the moment? Are we really gonna pretend like nobody has heard that before, or that it’s gonna traumatize some kids. That’s just a lame excuse for people in favor of censorship.
Real men have self-control.
Maybe that is why Indy-car is really adult entertainment and since it was “the Boy Scout” that was hit it just proves that this is not an activity for youngsters. A big bar of ivory soap should do the trick. Very dissappointed in Indycar racing… all the way around. Kendra and marco were “friends-next-door”…so what could you expect from the slum-dog. Very sad day in American world of entertainment.
Hear, hear!!!!!
Logged in to say just that. ALl it is is a word. Grow up America.
Doesn’t everybody remember the first time they realized ‘swear’ words were bullshit? Newspapers and blogs have to do the same thing to realize the PTC is bullshit.
Amen. I don’t watch sports these days, I rarely cuss, and I’m hoping my child won’t grow up to talk like a sailor, but I wish society would stop being so tough on people who happen to say things that people do actually say on everyday life.
If someone says the f-word or the s-word on TV, or even, very occasionally, racist/sexist/antisemitic words, the response – at most — ought to be that the individual or show ought to do the equivalent of putting a quarter in an anti-cussing jar.
If, say, some sportscaster says the antisemitic k word every five years or so, in a sentence such as “Look at that k*** run!!!”, then maybe the sportscaster ought to put $1,000 in a fund for, say, the NAACP. But the idea that a company should pay a $100,000 fine for an f bomb, or that, say, Juan Williams should get fired for saying one specific bone-headed thing seems wrong to me — even if we all accept, as a given, that the language involved is offensive.
One problem is that now we have the sanitized language that people on broadcast TV and politicians use, and the language that everybody else uses, and the gap is getting wider in a kind of a weird way.
On the one hand: I think any American who spends much time having candid conversations with people in Europe will recognize that political correctness is better than unrestrained racism and xenophobia.
But, in the United States, the responses to unpleasant language are so disproportionate to the crimes that we end up turning f bombers, Juan Williams, and even maybe people like Mel Gibson into martyrs.
You’re missing the point. Not everybody thinks exactly the same way you do. Everybody has a line — you probably wouldn’t want the image of a gigantic penis to appear on the screen while you’re watching TV with your daughter, for example — and for some people the line is language. Parents are entitled to raise their kids in a swear-free house and some (mostly elderly) people just plain hate hearing it. I know you don’t agree, but unfortunately we all don’t have the exact same tolerance level for vulgarity.
I’m late to the party here, but your logic is bad. Sure parents are entitled to raise their kids in a vulgarity-free household. But it they want to, they’re the ones who need to step up and restrict what they allow into the household. The world doesn’t owe them a sanitized planet to help them raise their kids their way. The parents can choose to keep porn, racy tv, comic books, rude relatives, and dissenting ideas away from their homes all they like. They just don’t get to tell the rest of us how to live in order to do it. And when they’re in public, they have to abide by all the same rules that everyone else does- be nice, be courteous, don’t commit crimes, and mind your own damn business. If you teach your kids not to swear, you’re teaching them values. If you cut them off from every swear word, you’re just enforcing ignorance. They won’t learn anything.
I think the more important question is should people stop acting like hearing certain words are going to bring about the destruction of the universe as we know it.
The whole thing is absurd… seriously. Where are the adults anymore?
What a retarded hypothesis. Stop being evangelical. Problem solved.
Stop being a fool. Problem really solved.
you offered the same advice that you purport to ridicule.
Sticks and stones may break my bones but bad words are turning us into a country of drug addicted atheists with no appreciation for what Sarah Palin brings to the political arena.
Republican talker Mark McKinnon said the word “bullshit” on CNN’s Reliable Sources this morning (4/17) and I didn’t feel the Earth shudder. But then hardly anyone watches Reliable Sources…
I have to agree that it’s not the live sports that’s the problem. These games run on a delay, so it’s on the NETs.
No, grow up. Real life is not raged G.
Its time to end silly, arbitrary rules that penalize broadcasters for words. When Spike runs “Death Proof,” they bleep out words, but show gory murder scenes intact. It makes no sense.
Nikki, as usual, your priorities are screwed up.
Of course, children shouldn’t be exposed to adult profanity, so live sports coverage should use the 7-second delay filter. Who’d disagree with this? Common sense.
How about a similar filter for violence?
Never happen, because your dear Hollywood hustler friends who market violence to teenagers in movies, TV, and video games, wouldn’t allow it.
And YOU, Nikki, would NEVER say anything to offend your mogul/producer/director insider crowd who make this violent garbage because they give you scoops.
So, you go after a dumb jock saying “fuck” and worry about the “children”. Easy pickings.
Nikki, if you REALLY cared about children 13-18, you’d rail in righteous indignation about the wanton, graphic violence your friends at MPAA and the studios allow in PG13 and “R” films (that 15 year olds gain admittance with impunity).
In your world, saying “fuck” during a live sports broadcast corrupts children. But it’s OK to inundate them in PG13 & “R” movies to ENDLESS shootings, stabbings, fiery car crashes, teenager slasher crap, torture, and all manner of brutality-except hearing “fuck”.
Ah, the irony…
You, your mogul friends, and the MPAA don’t want kids to hear “fuck” or watch a married couple make love-but if that married couple is shot, butchered, blown up…then send in the PG13 & “R” kids!
agree totally…love and natural nudity is wrong but horrible wanton violence is so ok. so backwards…
Reality Check, it would also help if parents actually took the time to explain to their children the difference between violence on TV and violence in real life instead of placing all the blame on the broadcasters.
Another diversionary tactic-bring the parents in to share the blame.
Don’t let Nikki’s friends, the Hollywood moguls/producers/directors, off the hook! They are 90% to blame!
THEY make TV, video games, & movies about violence to sell to boys 14-35 and their girlfriends. THAT’s what these amoral thugs do to afford their 7-figure homes in the Hills.
Weinstein (of Weinstein & Company) once famously said about his movies: ” I want a boom-boom (shooting, explosion, violent act) every fucking 10 pages!”
The movie & TV industry through MPAA and TV’s “Standards and Practices” made a pact with middle America:
“We won’t let your children hear “fuck” or see a married couple nongraphically making love.
In exchange, we’ll make the most repugnant, violent, horrific movies imaginable, featuring the most vile, sociopathic, and murderous idiots.
Then, we’ll slap “PG13″ & “R” ratings on these anti-social movies & video games, so ALL of your kids can experience interminable violence.
We’ll even make heroes out some some of these murderous idiots-Vin Deisel, Bruce Willis, Arnold Terminator, Godfather, Dirty Harry, Taxi Driver, EVERY Scorsese movie, etc.
Your kids will grow up to adore and identify with these ignorant sociopaths. And our industry will even award “Oscars” to some of the most violent movies and actors, making violence seem like a wonderful thing to your kids.
We’ll keep “fuck” and beautiful lovemaking from your kids.
But just watch the violent shit that we’ll dump on your kids head disguised as “PG13″ and “R”.”
“Violence, for lack of a better word, is good. Violence is right. Violence works. Violence clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Violence, in all of its forms- for life, for money, for love, knowledge- has marked the upward surge of mankind and violence, you mark my words, will not only save Hollywood, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.” Gordon G. would have made a great studio head.
Don’t blame the parent for violence in movies!
Hollywood moguls/producers/directors are 90% to blame!
THEY make TV, video games, & movies with unrelenting violence to sell to boys 14-35 and their girlfriends.
One mogul famously said about his movies: ”I want a boom-boom (shooting, explosion, violent act) every fucking 10 pages!”
The movie & TV industry through MPAA and TV’s “Standards and Practices” made a pact with middle America:
“Don’t worry, we won’t let your children hear “fuck” or see a married couple nongraphically making love. Love doesn’t work for us.
In exchange, we’ll make the most repugnant, violent, horrific movies imaginable, featuring the most vile, sociopathic, and murderous characters.
Then, we’ll slap “PG13? & “R” ratings on these anti-social movies & video games, so ALL of your kids can experience the joy of violence.
Then, we’ll even make heroes out some some of these murderous characters, so your kids will grow up to adore and identify with them. To make violence rewarding, our industry will even award “Oscars” to some of the most violent movies and actors, perfect role models for your kids.
We’ll keep “fuck” and beautiful lovemaking from your kids.
But just watch the violent shit that we’ll dump on your kids head disguised as “PG13? and “R”.”
“Violence, for lack of a better word, is good. Violence is right. Violence works. Violence clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” Gordon G., the Wall Street sociopath, would have made a great studio head.
Yet some people only raise concerns about hearing “fuck” during a TV sporting event. Go figure.
Nope. Sports will still be live. Its just some folks react without thinking. Furthermore, the language that ends up being censored is language most folks use regardless…even around their children.
Vegas will never allow a tape delay even for 7 seconds.
Bingo.
Has any kid ever died from hearing foul language? A few insane parents shouldn’t have an influence on anything.
Broadcast TV has had a very sucessful history and since it’s beginings it has had a set of standards. The American viewing public has accepted these standards and has even grown to expect them too. A seven second delay on Live TV won’t hurt and anyone can figure it out anyway if they need to.
“I believe in Censorship, after all I made a fortune off of it”
-Mae West
I really think its lunacy to put live sports on a delay, Kobe should suffer the consequences, and an f-bomb here or there isn’t going to blacken the souls of our children. Have you ever seen or played a video game made this century? Our children can behead each other in digital form, but if they see a nipple or hear a word, they will be forever mentally crippled. Come one, use your brain.
Oh, joy! Exactly what we need in America- to retreat even further from reality. Why don’t you hook us up to a Matrix-like 1950s machine and be done with it. We can call it Leave It To The Matrix.
If we don’t care about a nipple or a f-word, we are doomed as a nation…we’re heading down the path of the Roman empire, which decayed & destroyed itself from within..think past your nose for a change.
It was hardly a nipple slip or a latin vulgarity that caused the fall of the Roman Empire. But, perhaps it was having an over-reaching empire that spanned the known world. Maybe if you worried about what was REALLY important, you could see that.
thanks, Oz!
Enough with this puritanical obsession with language.
Newsflash, folks. Your kids hear it all and worse at school.
It’s just words, people. Nobody is stealing your car.
So, someone uses the word “faggot” and there’s a media shitstorm and a $100K fine? Really? Kobe is Kobe. If he’s being an ass and using some word that some people perceive as offensive, then he’s being an ass. Maybe he is an ass in his daily life. If people don’t like what he says, they can stop liking Kobe. Maybe he’ll apologize on his own later, maybe he won’t. Same with any live sports or event. Neither the NBA nor the network has anything to do with what the unscripted people may say.
A racecar driver says “fucking” (and not even in a sexual context, mind you) and what, he’s supposed to lose his milk sponsorship? (But then the broadcasters will show the fiery car crash where six people were killed – and they’ll show it over and over again from every angle, and in slo-mo.)
Grown-ups use all of the words in the dictionary to express themselves, even the “four-letter” ones. You say kids are watching? Fine. It’s not like they don’t hear those words every day at school.
As to any kind of delayed taping: if broadcast sports (or any event) bleeps what someone says, it will take ALL of the “in the moment” excitement out of the show.
Can’t we all just put on our grown-up panties and stop whining about the little shit?
I agree. Words are just sounds that we as a society made up. How did words become so “bad”? We could very easily use “chair” as a curse word. See how silly that would be.
It’s time that we stop this lunacy and face the fact that there is no such thing as a “bad word”. Words have become “bad” because we in society have deemed it so. We can really put an end to it if we wanted to.
And for those who disagree, then go chair yourself.
In the words of that great American and true patriot, Dick Cheney, “Go fuck yourself.”
Of course, he uttered this profound word in the chamber of that august body, the Capitol. The Republic almost fell over the utterance of such a shameful and disgraceful word.
On the other hand, how many fucking viewers does Versus draw for an IndyCar race? Twelve? Eight? More than the rotating cards for local businesses on the cable access channel but less than a test pattern?
Well, common sense has to prevail here. On the one hand, I curse like a sailor and don’t think that makes me an awful person. But on the other hand, I totally get it that parents don’t want their kids cursing or exposed to it. I don’t curse in front of my nephew, after all. But when someone does curse on TV, starting a religious crusade against entertainment or live TV isn’t the answer. This isn’t the kind of stuff the Supreme Court needs to be wasting time with. I say before 9:30pm or 10pm, no cursing at all. After that, whatever. Get nuts (within reason).
Stop broadcasting live events? How bout the networks grow a pair and bring a lawsuit against the FCC and end the standards completely. To fine broadcasters for language is a clear violation of the first amendment. It is ridiculous that the FCC has continued as long as it has-
The simple fact is that words are only as powerful as the power we give them. By raising all this commotion over censorship and trying so hard to shelter people from these words, we just give them more meaning and power. Do you really think the word “fuck” would be given a second thought by a kid if there wasn’t some huge mystique or Rebellious allure attached to it? Parents need to parent, educate their children about these words and how they’re not appropriate but only words. I think beating the shit out of people is something we should focus on when it comes to youth — there’s a reason violence and bullying seems to have escalated don’t you think?
Honestly, kids hear worse than this on the schoolyard and some how our moral fabric hasn’t been torn apart and disintegrated before our very eyes. I swore when I was a kid and somehow I turned out alright… go figure.
Live TV sports will be with us forever. It makes more money than scripted TV….and big sports events are huge lead-ins for the networks, still
Most TV sports already have a 7 second delay like radio…there is usually some delay so to keep the 4-letter words out. What you had in these cases were people missing the 4-letter words
As someone who can barely stand national announcers, let me tell you that sports aren’t truly “live”, anyway. There is at least a one-second delay between the radio and the television. Heck, I was out watching a hockey game last week. Evidently, the pub had two different channels tuned, as one of the televisions was at least a second behind the other.
If the media can’t even co-ordinate a live broadcast, why is this even an issue?
Oh, yeah… because if we couldn’t focus on this, we might notice that we are in THREE unfunded wars, the economy is in the crapper, and gas costs $4 a gallon. But, hey, thanks for being so f-in concerned about what a racecar driver is saying.
There cannot be any time delay on a sporting event. Why? because the gambling that occurs on those events constitutes millions of dollars a game, billions a year. If there is any delay, someone will “game the system” and be provided with instant bet advantages.
It’s unfortunate that occassionally things get out there. Maybe the secret is to not mic every athlete… we don’t need that close. But there can be no tape delays of any sort.
What about swearing in movies and pay TV??