Friday, April 04, 2008

Andy Rooney on "dirty" words

Excerpt:

"Later this year, the Supreme Court will be deciding whether some broadcasters should be fined by the FCC for the brief use of those dirty words-they call them "fleeting expletives."

No one has ever explained what harm dirty words do but it's like bad manners. I mean life is a bootstrap operation and dirty words may not be much but they diminish the quality of all our lives by just a little bit.

I think if the Federal Communications Commission left broadcasters alone, there would be very little profanity on the air because most people just don't want it, and if listeners don't want it broadcasters wouldn't give it to them.

I was in the Army for four years. I know all the four-letter words, I just don't want to be reminded of them on broadcasts but I don't want a lot of government agencies trying to regulate what I can say or hear on the air either.

Language is one of the best tools ever invented for anything and English is by far the best language. So, we should be careful using it though - so, I'll damn well decide for myself what I can say and what I can't say.

Source

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Andy's point is that left to their own self regulation, networks would clean up the language broadcast over public airwaves?

What planet is he from to think that?

Anonymous said...

Andy is wrong. Our society is ruder and more vulgar than ever and is sliding downhill. We need LESS vulgarity on television, radio and society. I was in the Army for twenty years and can curse in English, German and Korean but I do not use foul language because it is pointless and rude.