[opendtv] Soldiers' Words May Test PBS Language Rules

Soldiers' Words May Test PBS Language Rules

By ELIZABETH JENSEN
The New York Times
July 22, 2006

The PBS documentarian Ken Burns has been working for six years on 
"The War," a soldier's-eye view of World War II, and those who have 
seen parts of the 14-plus hours say they are replete with salty 
language appropriate to discussions of the horrors of war.

What viewers will see and hear when the series is broadcast in 
September 2007 is an open question.

A new Public Broadcasting Service policy that went into effect 
immediately when it was issued on May 31 requires producers whose 
shows are broadcast before 10 p.m. to adhere to tough editing 
requirements when it comes to coarse language, to comply with 
tightened rulings on broadcast indecency by the Federal 
Communications Commission.

Most notably, PBS's deputy counsel, Paul Greco, wrote in a memo to 
stations, it is no longer enough simply to bleep out offensive words 
audibly when the camera shows a full view of the speaker's mouth. 
From now on, the on-camera speaker's mouth must also be obscured by a 
digital masking process, a solution that PBS producers have called 
cartoonish and clumsy.

In addition, profanities expressed in compound words must be audibly 
bleeped in their entirety so that viewers cannot decipher the words. 
In the past, PBS required producers to bleep only the offensive part 
of the compound word.

Since May 31, bits of dialogue have been digitally obscured about 100 
times in four PBS programs, most often in two episodes of the music 
documentary "The Blues."

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/arts/television/22pbs.html?ex=1311220800&en=133201ba731dcf3e&ei=5090

 
 
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