Of course this documentary about a national tragedy is just that -- a public document. And just as the trial, e.g., of the Scottsboro Boys in our grandfathers' time was amazing in its frankness in dealing with sexual issues and biological evidence, so nobody who deals with the public business should be looking the other way or scrunching his eyes shut and generally playing sissy.
That said, I think it's a good argument, that CBS is using this essential public document and all the dramatic power in it, to push a vendetta against the idea of community standards, prurience, and what constitutes acceptable family programming. CBS is vindictively trying to reverse the well-deserved slapping-around they got after the Janet Jackson Superbowl incident, and to take back the initiative from the FCC on public decency.
CBS's position is, we will decide what "community standards" are! (And we'll use money as our metric, but that's another matter......) And public policy is just the opposite: No, the networks and licensees do not decide, the public decides.
CBS deserves to lose this issue, because they're punks, and this scam proves it.
That all said, how would I handle the documentary? I'd put it on later at night, when all the kids are in bed anyway, and I'd go ahead and run the warnings about uncut footage and soundtracks, and show the documentary intact.
And then, I'd have the chairman of the FCC pull the president of CBS aside and rip his face off for about 15 minutes for having tried to be a punk, and I'd leave him with absolutely no doubt about who was in charge of the question of community standards, and if he ever tried to screw with the FCC again, it'd cost his network $50,000,000 just for trying, plus whatever else I decided to tack on for his having been a punk again after I told him to knock it off.
I'm all in favor of a rule that says you cannot swear on network television UNLESS it occurs during a live terrorist attack. That should stop the "camel's nose in the tent" argument.
9/11 - Swearing is OK
Jim Belushi loses his car keys - Swearing is not OK
Your post was a good, even handed summary of the discussion. Thank you. Nurdly.
That is an absolutely correct position.
If the community ain't buying what you're selling, you'll go broke. That is the only known accurate measure of community standards. There are no anointed experts who can come up with any better measurement -- if there were, communism would work and capitalism wouldn't.