Taboo Words in Popular Culture

The article "Freedom's Curse" concerns itself with the overbearance of the FCC on radio and television broadcasts. According to the article, there isn't much of a reason at all for the government to involve itself with the censoring of the airwaves, arguing that personal taste will be the ultimate deciding factor on language in a household. Related to this is the article "Space, the Final Frontier-Expanding FCC Regulation of Indecent Content onto Direct Broadcast Satellite", which states that "...recently, legislations was introduced in the House that would require cable and DBS (direct broadcast satellites) operators to accept broadcast indecency standards".  The writers of the article fear that such an action, i.e. bringing cable and satellite companies under their standards, would lead to a violation of the First Amendment.

In both articles, the authors repeatedly state their belief that broadcast and government regulation should stay separate, although their reasons differ. The Atlantic column views the issue from the linguistics side, arguing the meanings inherent in these words will cause them to self-regulate. On the other hand, the second article mentioned focuses in on the legal ramifications of FCC rulings, and their impact on the Constitutional Amendments. Despite their differing methods, however, both argue towards the same purpose - that the FCC's regulatory policies are overly strict and unnecessary.