Tom Strode/BPNews Mar.19.04
After granting a request for a review of the ruling, the five-member commission struck down its bureau?s decision. It said not only did Bono?s use of the word qualify as profane under the law but other uses of the word would as well.
In its order, the FCC warned broadcasters they are "on clear notice that, in the future, they will be subject to potential enforcement action for any broadcast of the [expletive] or a variation thereof in situations such as that here." Violators will be subject to fines and possibly revocation of their licenses, the FCC said.
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It's not about the word, it's not about the act, it's not about gay marriage, and it's not about abortion. It's about genuflecting before the power. Accepting the ruling tribunal as your personal savior. Being one of "us" or one of "them". The logic of this, that children need to be protected from a short easily-spoken word for the act that creates them, versus the barrage of degrading violence everywhere on television and in movies, the acceptance of the word "damn" and even "God-damn" by people who say they believe those words express real possibilities, is non-existent. Anyone who truly believed in the possibility of hell would not take its use as a mild epithet lightly.
It isn't logical. It's not about ideas. These people don't think sexual matters are obscene, they think disobedience is obscene.
The issues are an excuse to demand obedience.
