'Howl' in an Era That Fears Indecency

[bananas]

Source: New York Times

‘Howl’ in an Era That Fears Indecency


Allen Ginsberg reading “Howl” in Washington Square in 1966.

By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: October 4, 2007

Those who happened to click on Pacifica.org yesterday could hear Allen Ginsberg intoning, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” along with the rest of his classic poem “Howl.”

The webcast on Pacifica.org http://www.pacifica.org/program-guide/op,segment-page/station_id,1/segment_id,469

The occasion was the 50th anniversary of a court ruling that found the poem had “redeeming social importance” and was thus not obscene.

Yet Ginsberg, who died in 1997, was heard online and not on the New York radio station WBAI-FM, affiliated with the Pacifica network, because the station, according to an article on Wednesday, feared that by broadcasting “Howl” it could run afoul of the Federal Communications Commission’s interpretation of indecency and incur bankrupting fines.

Janet Coleman, WBAI’s arts director, said that when the idea of airing the poem to test the law was proposed, “I said, ‘Yes, let’s try it.’” The radio station has a history of championing the First Amendment, having broadcast the comedian George Carlin’s “seven dirty words” routine that resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling on indecency. But after several harsh F.C.C. rulings in 2004 — against CBS for a glimpse of Janet Jackson’s breast during the Super Bowl halftime show and against Fox for curse words used during the Billboard Music Awards — “our lawyer felt it was too risky,” Ms. Coleman said. The commission can impose “draconian fines,” she said, that could put WBAI out of business.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/books/04howl.html

[xchrom]

1. i heard about this -- i think it was the day before yesterday --

and without a doubt -- it's the saddest commentary on our contemporary times i can think of.

[backscatter712]

2. Fuck the FCC

As far as I'm concerned, anyone should be able to use the airwaves to say as many cuss words and show as many boobies as they want. All protected by the First Amendment. I don't care if your four-year-old sees it. He'll survive the experience of his tender ears hearing "fuck" and his innocent eyes seeing a mammary gland.

And fuck the Supreme Court for the George Carlin decision. That damned well should have fallen under the First Amendment. History will show it to be one of their fuckups - not quite up there with Dred Scott, but certainly high on the list of freedom-destroying fuckups.

God our society is so fucking uptight now.

[LiberalEsto]

3. "I saw the best minds of my generation...."

censored.