Posted on 11/10/2004 10:56:32 PM PST by SmithL
NEW YORK -- More than 20 ABC affiliates around the country have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission.
The decisions mark a twist in the conflict over the aggressive stand the FCC has taken against obscenity and profanity since Janet Jackson flashed the world during the last Super Bowl halftime show.
Steven Spielberg's Oscar-winning movie aired on ABC with relatively little controversy in 2001 and 2002, but station owners -- including several in large markets -- are unnerved that airing it Thursday could bring federal punishment. The film includes a violent depiction of the D-Day invasion and profanity.
"It would clearly have been our preference to run the movie. We think it's a patriotic, artistic tribute to our fighting forces," Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, told AP Radio. The company owns three ABC affiliates in the Midwest.
Other stations choosing to replace the movie with other programming are located in Atlanta, Dallas, Honolulu, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Orlando, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C. They are owned by a variety of companies, including Cox Television, Tribune Broadcasting Corp., Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., Belo Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Warn the VIEWERS that the show will contain PROFANITY, let the ADULTS decide if their children should or should not watch, and SHOW IT IN IT's ENTIRETY.
IT HAS BEEN ON BEFORE, why didn't they make a big deal out of it then??????????????????????????????????
Because they hadn't had Janet Jackson's TITS shown during the SUPERBOWL and tried to claim it was an accident.
Because they hadn't used the power of the MEDIA to ELECT a SELF-INFATUATED WISHY-WASHY GIGOLO and LOST.
TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES - today
THE DIRTY DOZEN
(1967)
A renegade officer trains a group of misfits for a crucial mission behind enemy lines. Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Charles Bronson. Director: Robert Aldrich.
fear of making the American military look good.
Ding..... We have a winner.....
But showing politicians spewing lies about our military during PRIME TIME was OK.
Having Dan Rather insist that obviously fake documents were real, then insisting that even though fake, what they said was real, was OK.
Having REALITY TV showing people immersed in SPIDERS or SNAKES and ending up CRYING or PUKING, that's OK!
I mean, giving children horrendous nightmares, because that is REALITY TV is OK.
I mean, we are not even talking about the horror of the bloodiness, we are talking about saying F*CK.
We are talking about a MEDIA that doesn't mind ramming RAP down our children's ears, where every other word is F*CK or C*NT or WH*RE.
When I was a child, my father cussed more when working on the car than they do in the entire movie S.P.R.
But, I knew that was him, and I said it when I was with other kids my age (trying to be cool), but never around ADULTS unless I wanted to be unable to sit down for two weeks.
IF the networks stood to MAKE MORE MONEY, or did not have an AGENDA (wahh.waahh, we lost the election) they would show the movie. They would find a way.
GET SPIELBERG to make and exception to his contract, or provide a disclaimer, something.
THEY JUST want to PROVE A POINT, folks.
HOLLYWOOD, one of the largest income producing branches of ORGANIZED CRIME, doesn't like it when they lose.
Some of these stations are in some fairly conservative areas. And if anybody truly thinks the words you hear in this movie and the things you see are just like what you hear and see in regular commercial television, then you haven't seen the movie. Network sitcoms and dramas don't rpeatedly use the "F" word (in fact they NEVER use it), and they don't show bodies blown in half.
Of course if somebody really wants to see the movie, it's not real hard to go rent it. It's on the 99 cent shelf now.
Oh, absolutely. The miniseries had its share of profanity too, but it wasn't as concentrated. I had to watch SPR three or four times before I even noticed the language; it's a bit difficult to take note of every four-letter word while watching the action on the Normandy beachhead.
But thanks for the reminder - I'll have to visit www.wildbillguarnere.com some time today to say "Thanks".
Excellent film, and a perfect choice for Veterans Day.
Have you ever been around troops? Especially troops in combat? A realistic portrayal of combat and a "G-rating" are completely incompatible. It took me a long time after leaving the Marine Corps to be able to speak a paragraph that didn't have at least one obscenity in it.
I don't think SPR was as good as some others seem to think, but some of the combat scenes were the most realistic ever filmed up to that point. I don't blame Spielberg for insisting it be run uncut.
ah, hmmmm.
Those of us who have worn the uniform of the United States Army don't even notice the language. In fact it is the presence of the language that makes it sound more authentic.
But really, the way the FCC has been lately, you cannot fine one person a million dollars for saying a word, and let another off completely free. It's a fine line between gratuitous and artistic.
HA! Who do they think they're fooling? They don't want to give any credence to what our men in uniform went through that awful day. The sacrifices they made, the brute determination to get the job done, the lives lost. I don't agree with Speilberg politically, but he gave us one of the best depictions of what our guys and others went through back then and I think it's an injustice NOT to show it. If a person wants to be offended by what's on TV........watch a soap opera for cryin' out loud!
That line ruined the movie for me. What an absolutely horrible thing for Hanks' character to have said, and it struck me as perhaps the most unrealistic bit of dialogue in the whole thing. Troops in combat care about each other a lot -- they don't try to lay massive guilt trips on someone that's going to scar them for life.
"Hey Ryan, the fact that me and all my men died here is your fault. Hope you make something of your life."
That's basically what "earn this" meant. Bleh.
I don't think they're being "Chicken Littles". I think they're pretending to equate situations which in fact are completely different and they know it.
This is, in fact, an idiotic "protest" of the FCC standards.
No.
I don't think you get it.
Exactly.
Let's be honest. The stated reason they give is not the real reason.
Man, if they could manage the wholesale bleeping necessary to run The Last Detail, surely they could manage this.
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