Pro-Family Advocate Commends PBS for Keeping It Clean This Time
by Chad Groening
February 23, 2005
(AgapePress) - A television watchdog is lauding the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) for making the responsible choice to edit out the profane language in a documentary the network aired Tuesday night (February 22).A spokeswoman for PBS says the government-subsidized network decided not to risk a Federal Communications Commission fine, so it cut out the "f-words" and "s-words" from the Frontline documentary on the Iraq war, entitled "A Company of Soldiers." Although at least 16 affiliates asked for the original, uncut program, some 33 stations opted to air the edited version, without the swearing.
Melissa Caldwell of the Parents Television Council feels PBS officials did the sensitive and sensible thing by excising the foul language from the broadcast. "They may be subsidized by the government and connected to the government," she says, "but they're still subject to the same rules and restrictions and regulations that [guide other] broadcast networks, and I think it's appropriate for them to abide by the same set of rules."
Besides, Caldwell asserts, the profanity was unnecessary, adding nothing that the program was not better off without.
"I'm just glad that they have made the responsible decision to tone down some of the language," she says. "I don't think anything was lost in terms of dramatic impact or in terms of the quality of the program by cutting it out. I don't think that including the f-word or the s-word really adds anything to the drama. I think most of the time when it's used in a program, it's purely gratuitous."
And even though she believes the network did the right thing, the PTC spokeswoman says she doubts the FCC would have come down hard on the network if it had chosen to air the presentation with its obscenely "colorful" language intact. "I don't know that the FCC would have found PBS stations to be indecent if they had aired it with the foul language," she says. "I mean, certainly they took a pass on Saving Private Ryan, and I think this is probably comparable; but I don't think they lost anything by cutting the language out."
Last November the ABC television network chose to air the R-rated movie Saving Private Ryan during prime time, complete and uncut, with all its violence and profane language intact. The adult content of the unedited presentation generated widespread protest from pro-family viewers; but despite the many thousands of complaints lodged with the FCC, federal authorities did not penalize the network for blatantly ignoring broadcast indecency regulations.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
