Television Censorship

The responsibility of television censorship in America is placed squarely under the FCC's control. The FCC stands for the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is in place to regulate what it sees as indecent material, and will hand out fines if it sees it as necessary.

The FCC however cannot regulate satellite or cable television stations such as HBO. Which is the reason that shows like CSI are allowed to air at early times during the day. Films of all ratings are also playing throughout the day. I came home from class at noon a few weeks ago and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was playing!

In Ireland television has a watershed hour of nine pm. Before this hour no shows with offensive language or content can be shown, no exceptions. In my opinion this is the best way for television to be regulated as it gives parents a time to know when television becomes suitable and also means that children can browse without coming across indecent content.

In recent times in this country the biggest incident related to television censorship occured at Superbowl XXXVIII's halftime show. During the halftime entertainment Justin Timberlake revealed Janet Jacksons breast in what backstage called a wardrobe malfunction, it is known in the media as nipplegate! This was a live broadcast being viewed by millions of people across the country. This was of course completley distasteful and many children had seen it. The FCC fined CBS over half a million dollars after recieving about five hundred thousand complaints.