Was gobstopped when I learned of the following, courtesy of Neil Gaiman's weblog.
From a National Association of the Deaf press release:
From a Palm Beach Post article.:
The NAD have a list of supported/unsupported shows.

I'm kinda stunned. I didn't realize quite so many shows had government support for captioning. Captioning isn't just used by the deaf, but used in many situations where the spoken word is hard to hear. If the government doesn't support grants for closed captioning, will as many programs get captioned? Given the shows that do and do not get captioning support from the government, is this in fact censorship? Or should the free market bear the price of captioning programs?

Regardless, this is a chilling tale of secret government action that directly affects the media.

I can't believe they can legally do this. Regardless of the issue that government have somehow decided that deaf people need to be "protected" from the media, exactly what is so morally reprehensible about the Rugrats spin-off? Or Cribs, aside from the rampant fame whoring?

There are a lot of cartoons on that list.

Wha about da chirrun?

Hell, my hearing is perfect and I still need CC because the house is so frigging noisy. Where do they get off deciding that some shows aren't appropriate? Gah.

On a different note, I was watching Rain Man on A&E with a dear friend (she'd never seen it before), and she loved it. I loved it. Right up to the point where Cruise and Hoffman are crammed in the phone booth, and Cruise turns to Hoffman in disgust and says...

"Did you pass, Ray? Ray, did you pass?"

The word is fart, dammit. Say it, censors. Phaaaart.

Kind of makes you long for "All In the Family" reruns. Ah, those were the days...

Hi. I'm a closed-captioner by profession, so I know a little bit about this...

First of all, no show that's currently being closed-captioned is going to lose its captions. There are FCC regulations in effect that prohibit such "backsliding."

My personal view is that these days, captioning is such a ridiculously small percentage of the total cost of producing a television program that there's really no need for the government to be involved at all. (It was different back in the "olden days" when it was much more expensive, but there's so much competition in the captioning business that it has drastically driven prices downward.) All it does is lead to panic, hysteria, and accusations of censorship, like the articles linked above when the Department of Education decides to change its mind about which shows are eligible for captioning grants. That Palm Beach Post article is especially idiotic...for example, if the writer had taken a second or two to, you know, check his own newspaper's TV listings, he might discover that "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle" are closed-captioned, and Fox has somehow been managing to pay for the captioning for both those shows without getting money from the Department of Education all these years.

It's been at least a couple of years since I captioned something that was paid for by the Department of Education. (It was "Power Rangers," back when it was on Fox...these days, the captions are entirely paid for by ABC.)

I had started to post a comment/question about that aspect, but deleted it because I didn't know what I was talking about. Speaking from the depths of my ignorance of the business, I was gonna post that I think captioning should be done by the production team on a show, as part of the production process, rather than by some sort of government agency. So thanks for posting about that, trainman.

(So bascially, the Department of Education is only involved in this whole thing to, sort of, give an incentive to make educational or informational programming? If captioning is, after all, inexpensive, I'd guess a grant is not much of an incentive, and therefore not something to make a huge fuss about when you lose it. But maybe some shows are hoping to save money on captioning so they can afford better writers. Or better drugs.)

Last week while I was watching Angel I heard a character say "You're still a dick" or something like that. Then last night I heard the word "dickwad" used. The closed captioning didn't include the word. When did it become ok to say this on network tv? It's funny, I remember the first time I heard "ass" used in a sitcom and I was shocked. Shocked I tell you! Now "ass" is so common it doesn't even register in my brain that it was said. I guess "dick" is the new "ass", or it will be in a few years anyway. I wonder what the WB's policy is on this and if it's more lenient than the bigger networks.

Let's see. I've said ass doesn't register in my brain and that dick is the new ass. Those are two things I never thought I'd say.

Edited because my dickwad dumbass self doesn't know how to spell.

I've heard people say "you're a dick," but I've never heard anyone use the word "dick" to mean "penis." I wonder if that's allowed too.

As I understand it, you can get away with calling someone a 'dick' or a 'pussy' but you can't use either word in reference to a body part. At least, that's how Bababooey explained to a guest in the green room on Howard Stern's E! show once.

That sort of makes sense; didn't the FCC say that when Bono said "fuck" it was okay because it wasn't actually a reference to copulation, but more of an emphatic interjection, or something?

Which is kinda dumb, because regardless of context, a kid will hear a word and ask, "Mommy, what does fuck mean?" Or dick, or pussy, or whatever. (Actually, I don't think I've heard "pussy" on network television yet.)

Actually, Ernos, pussy has been said on network television. Several weeks ago on Letterman in fact. It was during a "Show and Tell" segment. An audience member had a clip of a movie she was in many years back that starred the man who plays the character Big Pussy on the Sopranos. She said the name three or four times, with Dave's urging. I don't recall if Dave or Paul said it though. So, there you go.

Well, just because I hadn't heard it doesn't mean it didn't happen, though I'm not sure that "counts," exactly, heh. If some character's name contains Pussy, it's not really the same as calling someone a pussy, I mean.

I do remember a joke Conan O'Brien told on his show a while back, about how he was with (or just ran into) the Big Pussy guy on the street, and some random fanboy recognized them both and started yelling "Conan O'Brien, Big Pussy! Conan O'Brien, Big Pussy!"

And then there was Mrs. Slocombe on "Are You Being Served?" who was always talking about her pussy, the prizes it won, the things it liked, etc. It was played for belly laughs, but since she was always referring to her pet cat, I wouldn't really "count" something like that, either.

Saturday Night Live has been saying pussy for a while. For a specific example, back in the early nineties when Tom Hanks was hosting, I recall the end of his opening involved Abe Lincoln calling him a pussy. So it's not a totally new thing. Of course, SNL is late night.

Rosie O'Donnell said "pussy" on her daytime talk show in a bit from her standup routine about her childhood pet cat, Pussy. Apparently the cat would escape and her father would walk around the neighborhood calling, in his slurred brogue, "Here, Pussy, Pussy, Pussy!" She named the cat Pussy when she was a child not knowing it was also vulgar language, and I suspect that's how every kid who saw her tell the story understood it.

Did you guys catch the (almost) nude actress on Angel this week? She woke up naked (having just transformed back from being a werewolf) and just barely covered her upper naughty bits with her hands. I'm not complaining, mind you, but the changing standards can be quite a shock when they smack you in the face like that.

I don't even think it was fully covered, werewolf girl... If you really watched intently...

Not that I was.

No, I backed my tape up several times, for research purposes, of course, and nothing was revealed. Though I bet it took several takes and extremely careful timing to avoid revealing anything.

The news media are starting to pick up up on the closed captioning meme. Since it's 4 months old, I'm assuming that they picked it up from AnimationBlast, NeilGaiman's log - or here, most likely. From looking at the articles, few seem to have looked at how closed captioning actually works - how much it costs, who picks it up, how it's regulated beyond grant funding.

I'm glad that I am not the only one who just noticed "dick." I think I heard it on SVU. I was so surprised.

"If some character's name contains Pussy, it's not really the same as calling someone a pussy, I mean."

MadTV did a skit where a guy was brought into court for using obscene and sexually-harassing language. He said that he had been upgraded to first class on an airplane so he sat near the cockpit. Then he ordered a cocktail. His firm was something like Hancock and Peacock. He used every form of the word "cock." It was hilarious.

"Parenthood" was on TV. There was a scene where Rick Moranis' character gave Steve Martin the thumbs up rather than the finger, after Steve inadvertently scared RM's little girl.

Just as some extra added information, captioning has never been done by the government, and it's also not done by a show's actual production team. It's done by various companies that contract with the networks and/or the shows' production companies; two of the biggest and oldest captioning companies are not-for-profit (The Caption Center and the National Captioning Institute), but the rest, including the company I work for, are attempting to turn a profit. Which is hard, given the fact that prices for captioning have been steadily declining because of the competition between captioning companies, and because there aren't enough people complaining to the networks when they see bad captioning. (The government regulation only says shows have to be captioned, it doesn't say how well.)

I could go on, but it's pretty much off-topic in this thread.

I'm a bit confused by this whole thread as in Britain, after nine o'clock you can pretty much do or say what you like on any channel. Is there no similar rule to this in America?

Yipppeee! for USA network. Last night, they showed "10 Things I Hate About You" and they didn't censor the line about "how tiny his dick was." I own the movie, or actually my kid does, but I still watch it every time I notice it's on TV and they've always just had Kat say "how tiny HE is." I fell asleep, but I'm pretty sure the "squid" still hitteth the fan-eth.

Nope. There's a "family hour" rule that's not enforced, where early prime-time programming isn't supposed to have stuff that's inappropriate for children. But even after that time, only the pay cable channels (like HBO) can get away with showing nipples, saying "fuck," and things like that. Congress is now making noises about being even stricter.

There's nothing like the British rule here. Before the age ratings everything that went over the air had to be acceptable for all ages. Even with the ratings, the networks don't like to push too far because someone will always complain - one parent made the news for complaining that something on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim - which runs from 11PM to 3AM, with disclaimers that it's not for kids at every break and all shows rated at least "13&up" - was unsuitable for her precious brat.

Yeah, the Religious Right has us by the short hairs over here in the US.

Seriously, until the last month or so, I've never been embarrassed or ashamed to be an American. Now I'm thinking of fleeing to Canada (if they'll have me).

I just don't understand why we can't have a little more personal responsibility in this country. If you don't want your kids to watch a certain show, turn the damn channel, and if you find all TV to be repulsive, get rid of it. If you're worried your kids will see smut at their friend's house, then you need to have a chat with the parents. If the parents aren't home or can't regulate what the kids are watching, have the friend over to your house. Why is this so hard to understand?!

And most of these people will let their kids watch violence, but show them a nipple for a split second and they're all up in arms. I saw a little girl who couldn't be more than 7 at The Passion. You just know those are the same parents who are having fits over the sex on TV.

I was listening to a radio show a few days ago, and they were talking about this (after the bill that raises the fines to half a mil passed the house), and this guy called up and was talking about how the broadcasters have social responsibility blah blah blah. But after a little digging by the hosts, they found out that during the "wardrobe malfunction" this guy (and his friends) used TiVO to replay the incident over and over with his 4 yr. old nephew sitting right there. Anyhow, the guy had the nerve to say how it's the broadcaster’s fault that his nephew saw the boob. Are you fucking kidding me?!!! It amazes me that people actually think this way.

Why can't we just send all these people to live on an island somewhere...oh yeah the constitution blah blah blah.

I believe, before 1981, no one ever said "bitch" on American TV. Dynasty was such a pioneer.

Saturday Night Live did (Gilda Radner as Emily Litella).

Isn't "ass" also a recent addition? Or have people been using it all along?

In Canada, 9pm is the "watershed" hour: the hour before which no programming intended exclusively for adults can be shown. Coarse langauge intended for adult audiences cannot be aired before this time. In addition to this, there is a requirement that viewer advisories be aired at the beginning of the program and coming in to the program after each break in the first hour of the program if it airs after 9pm (if the program starts to air at any time before this, broadcasters have to air viewer advisories throughout the full duration of the program, even if the "adult" scenes and langauge don't appear in the program until after 9pm).

Another interesting rule about broadcast standards in Canada is that national channels like Bravo and Showcase etc can air "adult" programming after 9pm in the time zone where the signal originates. Since most of these broadcasters are based in Ontario, they can air an "adult" program after 9pm eastern, even though it is only 6pm on the west coast. There have been a number of times when I've come across some racy programming during the dinner hour when I'm back in BC.

I should amend my statement to "American TV, excluding late-night." Honestly, Dynasty aired at 10PM, and it was a shocker, wasn't it?

I'd like to hear an Emily Litella rant on Nipplegate --
Emily: "What's all this I hear about Janet Jackson's pit showing at the super bowl? And she had some kind of ring attached there? She must not have been shaving for a while to get that to stay put. And it must have pulled and kind of hurt when she raised her arm. But pride feels no pain, I say. So who cares if she wears jewelry in her armpit? Not my cup of tea but..."
Jane: "Emily, stop! She showed her tit on national tv, not her armpit! Tit!"
Emily: "Oh. Never mind." [sweet Gilda Radner smile] "Bitch."

The first time I can remember anyone saying "ass" on prime-time network TV was an episode of Roseanne. Dan had gotten in a fight with some guy, and he and Roseanne were arguing about it afterwards, and Dan yelled, "I should have kicked his ass!"

One of my favorite dubs was in the network television showing of Robocop.

The scene: a Bad Guy is robbing a convenience store. Robocop shows up and starts kicking ass. Bad Guy starts shooting Robocop while screaming "Fuck me! Fuck ME! FUCK ME!"

Except that the dubbed version was "Why me? Why ME? WHY ME?"

Sort of misses the point, doesn't it.

In 1980, I lived in Buffalo NY (which is right on the Canadian border), and Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet was being shown on both US and Canadian broadcast - but the Canadians were showing the 1-second shot of Juliet's nipple, and the US wasn't. There was such a fuss on the news because poor innocent US kids might see a nipple on the Canadian channel.

Didn't that version of Romeo and Juliet show a plain-as-day shot of Romeo's ass?

Yes. Yes it did.

A while back, the CBC showed a special on David Cronenberg's work. This special became infamous because of two shots it included. One was a nude scene in which the ol' black bars had been coyly placed over the actress's breasts. The other was the infamous "head exploding" scene from Scanners, which was included in all its messy glory. No black bars there.

I was watching Die Hard With a Vengeance the other day on FX. In the uncut version, Bruce Willis calls someone (Samuel L. Jackson? I can't remember) a motherfucker. In the FX version, he calls him a melon farmer. A melon farmer.

Wow, that's threatening.

Commentator Geoffrey Nunberg provided a linguist's perspective on the obscenity debate on NPR's Fresh Air One suggestion that he makes (tongue in cheek) is that efforts to limit or ban the use of obscenities are good because they keep the meaning of the words obscene.

If an obscenity is accepted into common use, then we've lost a word whose use has to power to shock and make people take notice. When I was a kid, my grandmother wouldn't even let me say "darn" around her because of its derivation. Now , it's everywhere.

If we loose the obscenities that we have now, where is the next generation coming from?

Die Hard 2 has that beat, changing his final words to the bad guys to "Yipee-kayay, mister falcon!" The first time I saw it, I hadn't seen it uncut, and was seriously wracking my brain trying to figure out who mister falcon was.

On other thing: even if you don't like Scarface, rent the dvd. There's an absolutely hilarious bonus feature where they show how it's censored for tv.

And the briefest glimpse of his dick, too. So, of course, we watched this in my eighth-grade English class. Take that, censors!

I'm so sad I missed the dick shot. Seriously. I'm crying a river. No sarcasm or anything. :(!

There was a dick shot? How did I miss that?

The ass shot was long as hell, though. It must have lasted about a minute.

Channel 4 recently showed this as one of its promotional campaigns over here in the UK and I'm really surprised no-ones complained (there's usually some response to the c-word on television.) Seeing Adam Brody swearing totally made it up for me though!!
(link contains a lot of swearing btw)

Eh, it wasn't anything to get excited over and was entirely unintentional. I think it was the end of the never-ending ass shot, but I could be wrong. I haven't seen Romeo and Juliet since eighth grade, so the memory's a little hazy.

Did they actually show that on TV? From what I'd read, it was only supposed to be an advertisement shown in movie theaters, although they hadn't actually been able to get any theaters to agree to show it.

Okay - the pilot of the SciFi Law show of Century City dealt with a case involving a future where a child's sexual preference can be predetermined resulting in many parents not having gay children. According to many reviewers it was a boring, pedantic episode, which may explain why CBS chose to use a different ep for the premeire. OTOH, a widely syndicated gay critic said, "The ending really tugs at the heartstrings, especially for gay viewers who have had conflicts with their families over this topic. Those who have had positive coming-out experiences might even shed a tear or two."

Then CBS decided to give this episode an extra special screening on Saturday night. Special schedule. Of a show which just premiered on a weekday last week. Where it just happened to be pre-empted in most markets by college basketball coverage.

I have no proof of network intentions, as there's been no discussion, aside from a few critic's speculation. IMO CBS got cold feet and decided to self-censor before anyone noticed (it is the network that freaked over the Reagans). IMO, it was a bit counter-intuitive. Century is a ratings longshot and I doubt this one plot in an ep with several would affect the ratings either way. SF fans aren't homophobes anyway. As far as can tell no one was protesting this show. Is it just me, or is this a really weird bit of censorship?