As the Supreme Court hears arguments over the Federal Communications Commssion's right to regulate content on broadcast radio and TV, Entertainment Weekly reports a toddler character on the offensive-only-to-comedy show Modern Family will drop the f-bomb.
A long way from Scout's "Pass the damn ham!" in To Kill a Mockingbird, and arguably a rare sign of progress in American culture and expression.
'You've been warned, America. If you stumble across this safe-as-milk moment which is doubtless one of the reasons why the terrorists hate us, it's your own damned fault. There is a plenitude of tools designed for viewers to avoid ever seeing anything that might somehow offend or annoy them. Get off your duff and use them, despite that fact that the kid won't actually be heard saying fuck.
Jacob Sullum has just written a column about the FCC should just die already when it comes to regulating broadcast content. Read it and then go watch cable shows or internet porn.
Corrected alt-text: That's not Dan Aykroyd in the cast, but an incredible simulation.
To get a full sense of how slack the brainpower at the FCC is, travel back to 2005, when then-FCC honcho Kevin Martin actually said in a discussion of "indecency":
From the vault of Seinfeld, a simpler way to deal with cursing kids:
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