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Anorak News | George Bush’s Malfunction

George Bush’s Malfunction

by | 28th, July 2006

WHEN Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunctioned at the Super Bowl in 2004, Americans gasped.

The millions of viewers looking in could not have been more shocked at the sight of Janet’s bejewelled nipple had her top popped open to reveal a white chest covered in a pelt of thick red hair.

Sure, the American pornography industry is huge but Americans are prudish about such things on TV. Complaints were made and the television companies who showed the mind-bending nipple were fined $500,000.

And now a row is brewing in the land of the brave and free. The Times reports on the case of documentary film maker Ken Burns.

Not only does Burns have a beard, which marks him out as a suspect character and possible extremist, but he has produced a film which features swearing. Called The War, the programme has veterans using foul language.

And this is against the rules. Something called the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says what it fit and what is unfit for broadcast. And the swearing on The War is no good.

“The American people need to know this is not about Janet Jackson,” says Paula Kerger, the president and chief executive officer of the Public Broadcasting System, which is to broadcast the film. “This is about film-makers that have powerful stories that now are not being allowed to tell those stories on public television or broadcast television.”

So, as the Times says, he will show the movie, refusing to reschedule it for broadcast after the 10pom watershed.

The result is lots of interest in what could have been just another war documentary.

And lots of questions about whether censorship is needed when the nightly news is full of images of death and destruction, and the country’s President can be heard telling his closest ally that the key to Middle East peace was to "get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit”?



Posted: 28th, July 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink