House Editorial: Preserve the profanity
Award-winning Sept. 11 documentary should not be censored because of bad words
Posted on September 7, 2006

To commemorate the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11 this Monday, CBS will air an award-winning documentary originally created as a day-in-the-life of a New York City firefighter.  There’s just one problem — it contains a few four-letter words.

After 2004’s Super Bowl Nipplegate incident, the FCC hardened its positions toward profanity and indecency on television, raising the maximum fine from $32,500 to $325,000. As a result, some CBS affiliates are feeling a little skittish about airing the documentary, during which some NYC firemen use what the FCC would deem unacceptable language.

Rightfully so, says CBS Executive Vice President Martin Franks. To “sanitize” the reality of Sept. 11 is to undermine the horrible stress the firefighters were under. To rob them of their recognition and to fail at commemorating such an awful event — especially for the victims’ friends and family — is wrong. In fact, it is almost like comparing a few curse words between firefighters on one of the most stressful days in American history to Janet Jackson’s exposed breast during Super Bowl halftime. The two just don’t match up.

The American Family Association carries much of the responsibility for the heat put on CBS. In preparation for the documentary, it has readied three million some-odd members to unleash a torrent of complaints to both the FCC and CBS after the documentary airs. Isolated from the realities of Sept. 11 as the Tupelo, Miss.-based organization appears to be completely missing the point. It is a sad state of affairs when grown adults cannot understand that, when bad things happen, people might say bad words. And when dealing in situations with the gravitas of death at the hands of terrorists, the realities of the day deserve to remain undiluted.

Granted, FCC spokeswoman Tamara Lipper says the commission takes each situation into account and judges accordingly. However, it seems perhaps they don’t do this as effectively as they’d hoped, since CBS affiliates all over the country are dropping like flies at the possibility of paying fines after the documentary airs. Although, when you compare a measly $325,000 to the nearly 3,000 lives gone because of the attacks, the money doesn’t seem that important at all.