Lawmeme Post Title Altered in Ironic Situation

Ernie Miller of Lawmeme writes that he did a post there on the FCC decision about Bono's use of the word "fucking" on TV. The title contained "fucking" in it, and seems as though it was intended to push the boundaries of media expression (in an ironic and humorous way) because the FCC has with its decision. So it is with further irony that Lawmeme, which is a blog about the first amendment and free expression, technology, IP and the internet, and utilizes a medium that is less formal, quicker, irreverent and more blunt than say, law reviews that are more formal and less confrontational, would have some members of the group blog objecting to the ironic use of the word "fucking" in the title.

Ernie writes: I recently did a short little story on the FCC decision that Bono's use of the word "fucking" on TV was not indecent (via BuzzMachine). The title of my post was "A Fucking Interesting Decision from the FCC". Ironically, my use of the term "Fucking" in the title of the post was deemed unprofessional. The EIC of LawMeme demanded that I either change the title to "FCC Rules on Use of 'Fucking'" or delete the post. Without noting any of the irony, another editor of LawMeme instead changed the title to: Bono Says "Fucking" on TV; FCC says "Ok".

I can understand some people being offended by the post, but that is the point. The FCC doesn't think this use of "fucking" fits their definition of indecent, because the word was not used by Bono in a sexual context, and the same goes for Ernie's title. The idea for Ernie was to make this clear using that title, and with all due respect, it seems that some of the folks at Lawmeme missed that point.

Original post to Lawmeme:

A Fucking Interesting Decision From the FCC
http://tinyurl.com/qhyk [research.yale.edu]

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So much for George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words?

According to this [link] decision (Complaints Against Various
Broadcast Licensees Regarding Their Airing of the Golden Globe Awards
Program [DOC]), the use of the word "fuck" as an adjective in the
phrase "this is really, really, fucking brilliant" by the performer
Bono during the last Golden Globe Awards is neither indecent nor
obscene. Here is the key paragraph:

As a threshold matter, the material aired during the Golden Globe
Awards program does not describe or depict sexual and excretory
activities and organs. The word fucking may be crude and offensive,
but, in the context presented here, did not describe sexual or
excretory organs or activities. Rather, the performer used the word
fucking as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation.
Indeed, in similar circumstances, we have found that offensive
language used as an insult rather than as a description of sexual or
excretory activity or organs is not within the scope of the
Commissions prohibition of indecent program content.

Posted by Mary Hodder at October 11, 2003 03:55 PM