'Shit', 'Fuck' and 'Dung' being debated in the Supreme Court...

[cynatnite]

snip:
Scalia said he understood that foul words would be heard at a football or baseball game. "You don't have to have them presented as something that is normal in polite company, which is what happens when it comes out in television shows," he told a lawyer for the broadcast networks.

Scalia blamed television for "coarsening" public discourse. "I am not persuaded by the argument that people are more accustomed to hearing these words than they were in the past," he added.

snip:
One bright spot for the broadcasters was Justice John Paul Stevens. He wrote a 1978 decision upholding the FCC's indecency restrictions, but he said Tuesday that he was not convinced that every use of the forbidden words was offensive. Cher, for example, said on the award show that she had outlasted her critics. "So, F . . . 'em," she said.

What if a "particular remark was really hilarious, very funny? Would that cause the FCC to think twice about imposing a fine?" he asked Garre.

The solicitor general was unswayed. When "celebrities use particularly graphic, vulgar, explicit, indecent language as part of the comedic routine," he said, there is "potentially greater harmful impact on children."

Later, when Garre said the S-word must be banned because it refers to excretion, Stevens probed further. "Do you think the use of the word 'dung' would be indecent?" he asked. Probably not, Garre replied, because it "wouldn't be patently offensive under community standards for broadcasting."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-scotus5-2008nov05,0,5166091.story

[amdezurik]

1. they are debating Scalia, Alioto and Thomas?

amazing!

[GodlessBiker]

2. I wish George Carlin were here.

[Canuckistanian]

9. Or Lenny Bruce

Or Frank Zappa.

[Kerrytravelers]

3. Forget all the civil rights issues, let's worry about the poopy word.

:eyes:

I know, at some point, they will have to look at this. But it seems that there are more pressing matters right now.

[no limit]

5. I personally think this is a pretty big free speech issue

[no limit]

4. And who sets the "community standards for broadcasting"? What a backwards argument

[TexasObserver]

6. Oh, shit, fuck and dung!! Not this again!!

[Sancho]

7. Damn, pretty soon they'll be monitoring phone calls! (Opps?, they are!)

Community standards? To me, there are seven obscene words:

Bush, Jeb, GOP, Freeper, Neocon, Repub, and Limpball

[juno jones]

8. What's brown and sounds like a bell? n/t