This is one of them dealies where Congress enacts something in order to appear as if they are trying to return America to a Rockwellian fantasy world because adequately funding things like inner-cty schools and medical research are too expensive, right?

Your tax dollars at work, Frylock.

my tv remote doesn't have an off button :o( stupid cheap ass japanese tv sets :o( so i am FULLY in favour of this.

I wish there were fines for reality TV and other crap programming that broadcast TV has become infested with.

Nudity, porn and violence, on the other hand, should be subsidized by the government.

"We would put Big Brother in charge of deciding what is art and what is free speech," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., who opposed the bill.

Well, at least one rep finally admits that they work for "Big Brother"

/doubleplusungood comrad

How about fines for jackasses who don't watch spectacularly entertaining shows like Arrested Development.

So help me... if that thing gets cancelled...

/Still giggles everytime he thinks of "The Seaward"

Anyone find it weird that they want a $250,000 medical malpractice cap but the fine for cussing on air is $500,000?

If a doctor decides to just screw up and KILLS you he gets fined $250,000 but a DJ for saying a word that most people hear ever day would get fined $500,000. Does this seem dumb to anyone else?

Republicans: the party which wants to make your TV watching decisions for you.

389 to 38?

Holy crap. Both parties want state-run media where the FCC can intimidate any broadcaster they want. Democracy is dying.

FCC:

"Move-on commercials during the superbowl? inappropriate. Erectile disfunction commercials during the superbowl? Schwing!"

I'm still amazed that anyone even bothers watching network tv anymore. I haven't watched it in years.

Reality TV is anything BUT reality.

Methinks thisbe doubleplusungood speechfree.

In Republican America, the TV watches YOU.

Neo-conservatism, you happy yet?

I would like all you asshats who flame in every dems vs. repubs thread to sit down and really carefully read the vote count.

This is what you get when you vote for the lesser of two evils.

This is what you get when you compromise rather than voting your conscience.

Thanks a whole farking lot. You have taken away all choice from our political system in the interest of squabbling over how many percentage points we want to raise spending, rather than talking about real change.

Don't even TRY to blame one party over the other for this. Just don't go there. Please. You will only be revealing how narrowminded you are if you claim this is the work of but-what-about-the-children pansy liberals or religious whack-job conservatives. Because it simply isn't. It's DAMN NEAR EVERY POLITICIAN that JUST ABOUT EVERY VOTER has voted for in the past few years.

RX_Cowbell:


So help me... if that thing gets cancelled...


It was cancelled. Heard it a couple of days ago when the (I think) the director said they filmed their last episode just recently.

control: Democracy is dying.


Democracy is long dead, buried, resurrected as a zombie, killed again, chopped up, burned and spread at sea...

There was a dynamite Lewis Black rant on the subject while I read this article.

This from the group who completely dropped the ball and allowed big business to permit broadband over powerlines with all its interference on the public. Which power company will Micheal Powell be consulting for after he leaves the FCC?

Howard stern has said the day that passes, he stops talking till his contract ends and he moves to Eh Eh

Now the government wants to actually profit from a little flashed boobie. Now they are the indecent ones.

The FCC
U
C
K

/thankful for the internet :)

Wow. Three flamebait threads in a ROW. Look at this. Look at this thread topic, and still there's nobody in the thread.

We can talk about anything we want; we have the thread to ourselves. It's like going to your office/school with your girlfriend at night when no one's there. Creepy.

-------

Anyway...I don't have anything original to say that smoothsix and others haven't already said. Fark should close ALL threads after twenty posts, before the idiots find their way in.

Idiots, when you get here, read smoothsix's post. In fact, can we just put that post at the top of EVERY flamewar?

Huh huh...cool

When will they start fining TV for the stuff that offends the rest of us:, reality tv, reruns, sappy talk shows, soap operas, game shows, Donald Trump, etc.

Do you think the Fark filter will let me print George Carlin's seven dirty words?

Legislating morality is free.

Funding it is another story.

smoothsix

Unless you're voting for yourself, you're always voting for the lesser of two evils. There might be twenty or so people in the country who have the same exact opinion on every political issue as I do. None of them run for office. Believe it or not, most of America want this. That's the real damn shame.

I'm thinking Fark is trying to run a server test or something, sooo many flamebaits in a row. I don't wanna think what would happen if they saw Canadian TV, especially Showcase programmin like Trailer Park Boys.

Which is better:

(1) Nudity

(2) Violence

Most of America will choose (2) Violence.

"It's all for the children....." That's also what most con men tell you.....

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

This is bad, bad stuff. If you dont think theyll go after cable next youre fooling yourself.

Corvus Anyone find it weird that they want a $250,000 medical malpractice cap but the fine for cussing on air is $500,000?

If a doctor decides to just screw up and KILLS you he gets fined $250,000 but a DJ for saying a word that most people hear ever day would get fined $500,000. Does this seem dumb to anyone else?

All hail Corvus!!

I think this a wonderful example of hypocricy in action. The wonderful Rep. Upton declares on his House website:

"Representative Fred Upton is one of the most active members of Congress working to ensure our nation is on a path toward a smaller, more efficient, more effective federal government."

Apparently now empowering an out-dated and unnecessary federal agency is part of creating a smaller government. The only thing the FCC should be doing to making sure two broadcasters aren't trying to be on the same frequency. That's about it.

Also, call me crazy but I thought the First Amendment had something to say about Congress making no law abriding free exercise of what was that again....?

Oh and this is indecency, not obscenity so the feds or government in general have no place in this stuff at all.

i dunno about the Fark filter, but let's just see:

fark, shiat, coont, pussy, cock, cocksucker, motherfarker

/not looking for bannination, just want to see what it spits out.

I say we also fine for religous talk.

Why? because it is also offensive to many.

Eye for an eye right?

I guess it's okay to say the middle few.

Blank willow... blank willow...

On the people ripping Reality TV...

Normally, I would say I'd agree with you; most of it sucks (The Simple Life 3... WHY???). However, give The Ultimate Fighter a try. Throw a mishmash of conflicting personalities into a single house (I'm guessing like The Real World, which I've never watched) after dividing them into teams coached by the UFCs top Light Heavyweights (Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell) to create even more friction. The teams have competions by weight class. The competions have rules set up to set up a UFC fight -- one member from each team. The loser of the fight gets eliminated.

I like it because it actually makes SENSE... these guys are in the competion for a FIGHTING contract, so have them FIGHT to get it while showcasing each guys personality to build up interest in the eventual winner's matches -- do you like the guy because he kicks @ss in the octogon, or hate him because he's a @sshole.

I can't believe I just gave a rant in favour of Reality TV... but damnit I'm hooked on that show.

Corvus won this thread. Move along.

WTC, Pentagon... but the buildings of the FCC, PTO and Congress survived. To fark us all in the ass.

Aim better, next time fellas. We took out Saddam so you could have freedom, you owe us one back.

2005-02-17 12:16:52 AM orrinbloquy

WTC, Pentagon... but the buildings of the FCC, PTO and Congress survived. To fark us all in the ass.

Aim better, next time fellas. We took out Saddam so you could have freedom, you owe us one back.

Um. We took out Saddam. He was the leader of Iraq. He didn't take out anything. Osama and 19 Saudies did.

ThisisPeteIn New Zealand we have a 9:00p.m. watershed and anything on it after that which may be offensive has a disclaimer like "This programme contains violence, language, and nudity which may offend some people. Viewer discretion is advised."

TV shows are also classified G, PGR and AO, with an appropriate symbol that pops up in the bottom right of the screen for about 5 seconds after the commercial breaks

As does the US. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be enough for the (don't godwinize the thread!) farging bastidges at the FCC.

I guess the right to express yourself can be taken away from you by a government if that expression modulates an RF electromatic wave.

As for not affecting cable and satellite, it would be utterly foolish to think they are, or shall remain, immune from government censorship. As cable and satellite are treated more and more as though they are public utilities, so they shall find themselves more the targets of those who wish control over what people can say.

Right here in the U.S. in the 1800's it was unthinkable by most that the government would tax personal income. In the 1800's it was unthinkable by most that the U.S. government would (or COULD) ban military-style firearms.

Things do change, radically. And governments do not tend to ALLOW more freedoms, they take them away. Cable and satellite services are already very much in their sights. Be ever-vigilant, or be prapared to lose whatever they can take from you.

Outsourced_to_India:

Um. We took out Saddam. He was the leader of Iraq. He didn't take out anything. Osama and 19 Saudies did.

Gee, I dunno, Sean, Rush, Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly all say Saddam was responsible for 9/11, so I figure we're entitled to use their shiatty excuse for rhetoric to send them to the ovens first.

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have .... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. -- Thomas Jefferson

Well, technically speaking... "decides" is the operative word here. Doctors don't decide to kill you. Its, more often than not, a mistake. A mistake with terrible consequences, but a mistake nonetheless.

DJ's decide what they're going to say.

I personally strongly disagree with the FCC regulating *any* speech... but your argument isn't logical.

What if it's a DJ on a live radio broadcast and obviously yells out 'awww fark' with out thinking about it?

I wish I could vote for emmaleth's Jefferson quote. :)

"What if it's a DJ on a live radio broadcast and obviously yells out 'awww fark' with out thinking about it?"

What if they do? Who does it hurt? Whos rights have been violated?

Laszlo Fark: I wish I could vote for emmaleth's Jefferson quote. :)


We need another Jefferson, or atleast someone without their head up their ass.

Stiffer Penalties for boobies?

Means more money for ANYBODY providing ANY KIND of porn-

When it goes undergroud, it'll come back stronger than ever

/surprised no one's figured out how to combine meth & porn..

emmaleth: We need another Jefferson, or atleast someone without their head up their ass.

Just wanted to clarify, I was not referring to any one politician in particular. Most people have their head up their ass.

/surprised no one's figured out how to combine meth & porn..
______________________________________________________

Someone has never heard of The San Bernadino Valley.

emmaleth "Most people have their head up their ass."

You noticed that, too, huh? But if you can get past the frustration, they can be quite ammusing sometimes!

That headline made me giggle like a 13 year old biatch.

Censorship reigns supreme! Atleast I still have the internet, my last bastian for freedom of speech and anti-censorship. I can say things like motherfarker, farked a farking goat and farking ate shiat and died. I'll never be farking goddamn censored on the internet!
errr... fark

I feel compelled to make an appearance in this thread, but there's just so little left to say. Apparently this is what America wants, the people have spoken, long live censorship. Yay.

downstairs Well no. an HMO could DECIDE not to do a costly test on patents. Knowing that 1 in 1000 will get a disease and die if the tests are not done. So that the $250,000 they would be fined IF someone DOES sue would be worth it over a costly test over hundreds or thousands of patents. So yes they could decide to have people killed to save money.

Where as a DJ could also have someone on the air that cusses. And he would then get fined for the other person cussing.

Tv does suck though. I hate people that watch TV. It's pointless. 3/4s of Amorica are TV slaves.

PinkFarkingFloyd:

Tv does suck though. I hate people that watch TV. It's pointless. 3/4s of Amorica are TV slaves.

Suck or not, you and everyone else should have the right to watch. I have the right to be fat and stupid in front of the boob tube.

If 1/2 of the kids today spent 1/2 of their time playing guitar rather than watching TV.. we might be able to save the future of music. As it stands right now though, we'll just have to keep putting up with shiaty people pretending to sing on shiaty talk shows.

danvon

RX_Cowbell:


So help me... if that thing gets cancelled...


It was cancelled. Heard it a couple of days ago when the (I think) the director said they filmed their last episode just recently.

Yes, they filmed the last episode of their second season, but it hasn't been canceled. Repeat: Arrested Development has not been canceled.

You farking republicans and democrats brought this on yourselves by voting so stupidly and consistently. May you all enjoy your FREEDOM TV.

God Bless Freedom

2005-02-17 01:10:16 AM Talib Kweli

San Bernadino Valley?

San Fernando perhaps?

/i know my porn

Democrats? Republicans? Don't look at me. I ain't got nothin' to do with it. I didn't elect ANY of the nutballs currently in Congress. I still say DiFi, Pelosi, and Boxer all desperately need to be put in prison. I may live in Karlifornia, but I promise you I had nothing to do with those farking idiots!

Why can't an adult oriented show say the word "pussy"? Chances are that a child won't hear that unless he/she is riding in the car with his/her parent who is listening to the adult oriented program and has the power turn it off when their child is present. Seriously JUST TURN IT OFF!! Don't biatch and complain because you think your god isn't gonna let you into heaven cause your child saw janet jackson's nipple on T.V. during the super bowl half time show. I know there is a fine line but FARK MAN there are way bigger problems that need to be solved than appeasing these "Prurient Puritans"

land of the free, HA!

I listen to so little radio and watch so little TV that as far as I know people are screwing donkeys on Sesame Street.

YAY!

Welcome to the new Moral America the majority voted for!

Since when did America become the land of and for the narrowminded prude?

The reason we do not have a theocracy is that we have seperation of Church and State. Oh wait, Bush did away with that. Fighting religious repression with religious repression.

"Land of the Free" is false advertising.

Free speech is becoming another one of those ideas that people parrot, but no one really believes. (Like "if you work hard, you will become rich" or "It never hurts to help".)

Until people start to fight back against these prudes, you will see every form of media in this country turn into a bland boring morally erect waste of bandwidth.


Another reason I have stopped watching most American TV.

Man, the best thing abou this administration is that I don't even have to think or choose for myzelf anymore, it is all done for me!

The Fascists were on to something, its like having a giant, all encompasing father to rule your life, we all need that in this Hobbesian world. I am just glad that this administration can recognize the fact that us, the public, are incompetent.

Won't somebody please think of the children?

I listen to so little radio and watch so little TV that as far as I know people are screwing donkeys on Sesame Street.

I believe that's the Hundred Acre Woods. With muppets, the donkeys are just felt.

It's now time for the neocon spin hour. DIA & Weaver95 take it away. Tell us all why censorship is good and free speech is bad.



New GOP motto: We out nazi the nazis.

....and 36% of high school students believe the government should be able to regulate the news.

Who would have thought that Janet Jackson's boob would be the bellwhether of democracy.

censor everything. immediately.

I can't even put into words the rage that I feel towards shiat like this. Wait, I just did.

wow, not even 100 people posted a response here.

not even a "free speech surrenders" tagline. Americans everywhere literally just surrendered the freedom of speech without even so much as a footnote in the local evening news broadcasts.

As much as France sucks, at least entertainers have the freedom to tell a dirty joke onstage without having the fear of getting a half a million dollar fine government.

Freedom is on the march, eh? Nice. Majority of Americans = Sheep.

StuartMcIntyre
Won't somebody please think of the children?

This guy always thinks of children.



/one, please.

This is how the government thugs work: they fine you shiatloads of money for doing what everyone agrees is acceptable, then line their pockets with it and tell everyone it's going toward your safety and health. If Bono had balls he woulda had contracts put on the heads of the FCC. Good Irish hitmen. 500 grand woulda been spent in a much better fashion.

I've been starting to feel this onslaught of the prudes lately. I get the feeling this country is quickly heading toward a dark ages style repression of thoughts and ideas. I wish these people would just exercise a little restraint and not listen to or go looking for crap that offends them.....and why is it that the one's who yell the loudest do the nastiest crap behind closed doors? cough...O-Reilly......cough...

Smoothsix:

I believe that for the house I voted Green Party and I know that for the Senate I voted for Russ Feingold. I know that he will vote against this just as he voted against the Patriot Act.

/from Wisconsin

If they hate us for our freedom, I guess they won't be hating us for long.

Bow down to the baby-shiatting minority!

I went to the House of Representatives web site to see if my congressman voted for this (to let him know that if he did I'll be vigorously campaigning against his unpatriotic ass next election), but I can't figure out how to get voting records. Anyone know how to find this info?

Orrin: We took out Saddam so you could have freedom, you owe us one back.

I see its still working . . .

Rascal263:

Here is the link http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll034.xml

My Rep (Zoe Lofgren) was one of the few who voted against this, and I have already sent her a letter of gratitude. This is going to the Senate next, so you may also want to write your Senator and let them know what you think about this bill. Be sure to reference the name, not the number, as the House and Senate use a different numbering system for their bills.


Yesterday was yet another sad, embarrassing day for America.

Unfortunately while the bill was started by Christian right fundamentalists like Senetor Brownback (R KS). It's the easy way to say "I'm against naughty language" than to stick up for freedom of speech. So there is a lot of Dems on board for the bill. The only reason it didn't pass before was because somebody tacked on some unacceptable riders to it. And what about that sad sad poll of students that 30% of them thought the first amendment gave too much freedom.

Has anyone but me noticed how little the media is covering this story. I would think having our free speech rights blatantly infringed upon would make for interesting news. But I guess the Michael Jackson case is just so much more important and such a critical world event.

/Stupid American media

//Will be following Howard to Sirius

therecksays:

The only reason it didn't pass before was because somebody tacked on some unacceptable riders to it.

You mean to say that such things exist?!