Parents Television Council Complains About "Who The ---- Are You" Lyric
July 14, 2005
ABC's Live 8 coverage has generated an indecency complaint, filed by The Parents Television Council. At issue is a performance by The Who during the July 2 Live 8: A Worldwide Concert Event broadcast on ABC Television. The complaint was filed against Allbritton' s WJLA-TV Washington.
The PTC alleges that the ABC broadcast didn't edit the F-word out of The Who's performance of "Who Are You." Specifically, the line in question is the lyric "who the [**EDIT] are you," a line that has been aired countless times in its unedited form on radio stations across the nation since its release in 1978.
When asked why the lyric is all of a sudden offensive after 27 years of radio broadcasts, PTC Executive Director Tim Winter told FMQB, "it's a great question," but the PTC is more concerned with television than radio. Citing the FCC's ruling that Bono dropping the F-bomb during an NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes was indecent, Winter contends that even though The Who lyric has been broadcast undedited on the radio, it "doesn't allow it to violate the law" and he felt that the Live 8 airing was "certainly offensive when it is broadcast to millions of families all across the country at the 8 o'clock hour."
ABC issued a statement saying, "Unfortunately, one inappropriate phrase sung by one performer was initially missed and made it into the East Coast network feed. It was subsequently edited out of the West Coast feed."
The Live 8 concert was a worldwide event held on July 2 designed to bring attention to the growing conditions of extreme poverty and debt facing much of Africa. The event garnered enough attention that, post-concert, British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke on behalf of the G8 leaders, pledging $50 billion in aid to Africa.
http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=100543
Wanna tell these brain-dead bluenose blowhards at the PTC where they can stick that lyric?
[email protected]
Really! How do people get so worked up NOW over a word that you can hear every day on elementary school playgrounds and in a Who classic that has been broadcast uncensored on the radio for nearly 30 years?
"Because our children are watching"? THEN CHANGE THE DAMN CHANNEL!! Talk about deadbeat parents! They are so lazy, they can't even change channels on a remote control and instead expect big government to be the parents and nanny the rest of us out of their laziness. The majority of us are not going to sanitize our TV and radio to cater to them. Period. And it's not like ABC is the ONLY TV channel in America, but by the way they bitch about it, you'd swear we were in Bhutan, which DOES have only one TV channel.
I watched the Live 8 concert uncensored on VH-1 with my oldest daughter and you know what? She didn't even notice what they were singing about. Most kids don't when it comes to this old "classic rock" music their parents and grandparents listen to. To them, it's a bunch of yelling old guys.
I believe they're doing this to pick a fight. It's not like they all just heard that song for the first time. And if they are really THAT sheltered, then THEY, more than their kids, shouldn't have been watching the Live 8 concert....
<P ID="signature">______________<BR>Seattle Hempfest, August 20-21, Myrtle Edwards Park, http://www.hempfest.org/
[email protected]
</P>
[*EDIT-subject line edited for objectionable content]
[**EDIT-profanity]
July 14, 2005
ABC's Live 8 coverage has generated an indecency complaint, filed by The Parents Television Council. At issue is a performance by The Who during the July 2 Live 8: A Worldwide Concert Event broadcast on ABC Television. The complaint was filed against Allbritton' s WJLA-TV Washington.
The PTC alleges that the ABC broadcast didn't edit the F-word out of The Who's performance of "Who Are You." Specifically, the line in question is the lyric "who the [**EDIT] are you," a line that has been aired countless times in its unedited form on radio stations across the nation since its release in 1978.
When asked why the lyric is all of a sudden offensive after 27 years of radio broadcasts, PTC Executive Director Tim Winter told FMQB, "it's a great question," but the PTC is more concerned with television than radio. Citing the FCC's ruling that Bono dropping the F-bomb during an NBC broadcast of the Golden Globes was indecent, Winter contends that even though The Who lyric has been broadcast undedited on the radio, it "doesn't allow it to violate the law" and he felt that the Live 8 airing was "certainly offensive when it is broadcast to millions of families all across the country at the 8 o'clock hour."
ABC issued a statement saying, "Unfortunately, one inappropriate phrase sung by one performer was initially missed and made it into the East Coast network feed. It was subsequently edited out of the West Coast feed."
The Live 8 concert was a worldwide event held on July 2 designed to bring attention to the growing conditions of extreme poverty and debt facing much of Africa. The event garnered enough attention that, post-concert, British Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke on behalf of the G8 leaders, pledging $50 billion in aid to Africa.
http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=100543
Wanna tell these brain-dead bluenose blowhards at the PTC where they can stick that lyric?
[email protected]
Really! How do people get so worked up NOW over a word that you can hear every day on elementary school playgrounds and in a Who classic that has been broadcast uncensored on the radio for nearly 30 years?
"Because our children are watching"? THEN CHANGE THE DAMN CHANNEL!! Talk about deadbeat parents! They are so lazy, they can't even change channels on a remote control and instead expect big government to be the parents and nanny the rest of us out of their laziness. The majority of us are not going to sanitize our TV and radio to cater to them. Period. And it's not like ABC is the ONLY TV channel in America, but by the way they bitch about it, you'd swear we were in Bhutan, which DOES have only one TV channel.
I watched the Live 8 concert uncensored on VH-1 with my oldest daughter and you know what? She didn't even notice what they were singing about. Most kids don't when it comes to this old "classic rock" music their parents and grandparents listen to. To them, it's a bunch of yelling old guys.
I believe they're doing this to pick a fight. It's not like they all just heard that song for the first time. And if they are really THAT sheltered, then THEY, more than their kids, shouldn't have been watching the Live 8 concert....
<P ID="signature">______________<BR>Seattle Hempfest, August 20-21, Myrtle Edwards Park, http://www.hempfest.org/
[email protected]
</P>
[*EDIT-subject line edited for objectionable content]
[**EDIT-profanity]