What Can't You Say on TV?

If George Bush swears in public, so can TV! That's the gist of a decision in favor letting the odd rude NSFW term through on broadcast TV.

The Federal Communications Commission, which never met a media merger it didn't like, just got slapped by the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York for coming down so hard on TV networks for the odd swear word. The Big Four – CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox – said this was a capricious and unworkable change in decades of policy that didn't hold networks liable for the odd accident – like, say, an embedded reporter letting one fly when a shell almost takes their head off or when it's artistically justified. Or when Lindsay Lohan is, ahem, tired and emotional.

The Bush-era FCC has been cracking down on what it calls fleeting expletives, like when someone gets carried away at an awards show and the outside broadcast unit technicians don't get to the bleep button in time. This led to some hypocrisy-baiting: The judges said if Bush and Cheney are going to swear like sailors on shore leave, then TV news should have the right to report it.

The court had most problems with the FCC's term "fleeting expletive." What is a fleeting expletive? One swearword? Several said very quickly? What about if it's in a foreign language? Or what if it's only one, but you say it really, really long? Like fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhh – you get the idea.