Watch What You Say

  By Florida Bill  
                            
                                  Movie goers cringed when they heard Clark Gable say, "I don't give a damn" at the close of the classic movie "Gone With The Wind" way back in 1939.  Moralists quickly promised to put a check on such Hollywood profanity. 
                                Many years have passed since those days.  How did that go?
                                  Gradually, that kind of sailor's talk with the "hells" and "damns" became routine in the movies.  It just was more dialogue, readily acceptable to deliver emphasis. The morphing continued unabated inside society's push for a country which should have no restrictions.  It was "political  correctness" with liberals  at the mike. 
                                   Laws governing profanity and obscenity were enacted and there was always cautions that the Federal Communications Comission  (FCC) was looking over your shoulder....so be careful.  But enforcement got sidelined and the hammer to regulate was made of cotton, rather than steel. 
                                    Maybe the real breakout came in the mid- 1960s when comedian Lenny Bruce let fly with the "F" words in his night club acts.  He kept getting arrested but he kept using the "F" word with its variants which included "MotherF...er."  In 1966, Bruce was prosecuted, found guilty and sentenced to jail.  While his appeal was pending, the 41-year-old comic died and the reviewing court reversed his conviction based on the right of free speech.  Bruce was the trailblazer for use of the "F" word, and thirty-seven years later, New York Gov. George Pataki granted him a posthumous pardon.
                                  The door was wide open and television was expanding. Newspapers and magazines were taking a backseat first to the boob tube and later to the Internet.  But still, there were laws prohibiting what you say and where you say it.
                                  Comedian George Carlin, who looked upon Lenny Bruce as his friend and mentor,  then unveiled his own special and historical commentary on the "seven words that you cannot ever say on television."  He then enumerated the forbidden words as "shit, piss, cunt, fuck, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits," in a Wisconsin appearance.   He was arrested, but a judge dismissed the case finding that while he was obscene, he caused no disturbance.
                                           Carlin's words, then called the "Milwaukee Seven," emboldened comedians around the country.  Cases came and went.  Today, the Carlin special words are
perfectly acceptable for Cable TV hookups, but the "seven" and obscene talk remain taboo for network stations. But any dialogue is invited in the "anything goes" LaLa land of Hollywood.
                                    Newspapers and magazines were initially careful to bleep out and "redact" the dirty words in a news story, or rewrite the quote to avoid the use of the words altogether.  Later, with the illusion of being accurate, the offensive words were written using asterisks.  Sentences in stories and reports would contain words such as "f**k" and "motherf**ker."  There was the "C" word for ladies privates.  In a story of a DUI, the driver might be described in a quote as "drunk as s**t."  
                                     The FCC is charged with monitoring television to protect against use of profane no-nos such as Carlin's enumerated words.  It can suspend or even revoke licenses and levy fines. After a reported violation, the FCC makes an "investigation" and decides on the penalty, if any. Recently Stephen Colbert accused President Trump of oral sex on President Putin.  The FCC "investigated" and then gave it a pass. 
                                     With Cable TV, there is no monitoring by the FCC which has jurisdiction over the airwaves, but not over cable where the signal passes by wire and is paid for by subscribers. Cable's "Real Time" with funny man Bill Maher is a good example of regular use of the "F" word and its many variant uses as a noun, verb and adjective.  In virtually all of cable TV and in the movies--anything is okay to say.
                                      There used to be a time when reporters (I was one for the Chicago Tribune) cleaned up quotes as a way of not roasting the speaker for his gutter language or because it seemed like the right thing to do.  Nowadays, you get quoted as you speak, and it goes into the top magazines, and sometimes (but not always) in newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal. 
                                      When President Trump was campaigning, many celebs spoke out against the Republican candidate and threatened to leave the USA if he was elected.  Various print media,  cable TV and  social media such as Twitter, quoted disgruntled liberal stars expressing their rather vulgar disgust with the idea of Trump being elected--with or without the asterisks, usually without.  Some examples: Samuel H Jackson described  Trump as "barbed wire up my ass;  If that motherf---er becomes president, I’m moving my black ass to South Africa." (By the way, we're still waiting.)  Classy Whoopi Goldberg said she is just "pissed" at the the thought of a Trump victory, and little Miley Cyrus said that Trump is a "f...king nightmare." A sick "f**K," opined Michael Moore for the cameras. 
                                       So is there a word that cannot be said under any conditions ---on cable, in magazines and newspapers, on social media as well as the airways?  Yes, it is the "N" word.
                                           The "N" word is so sensitive and explosive that it cannot be articulated even in this blog.  Some researchers have said that the "N" word ranks as the "most offensive and inflammatory word" in the English language, expressing monumental hatred and bigotry. Professors themselves dodge the word, even in English classes dealing with semantics.      
                                            Its use was almost the end of Bill Maher last June when he used the raw N-word on his talk show to describe a slave of the old South who worked in the house rather than in the cotton fields. Maher was clobbered by everyone, many demanding that he be removed from television.  Maher apologized profusely and over and over for weeks, but survived.  
                                                  So, as of today, it appears that you can mouth the seven no nos without fear of censure and almost anything else with but one exception: the "N" word. It is protected in the Constitution under free speech like any other profanity or obscenity.  But any speaker who dares utter it will be consigned by social and anti-racial persons and organizations to a level of society which is lower than Frog sh-t                               

                                      
                                               XXX             





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