By Michael Parrish
Let’s set this up for a moment… Jane Fonda gave viewers of NBC’s Today Show a little extra gift on Valentine’s Day, using a profane word during a segment about the Vagina Monologues.
Meredith Viera quickly smiled her way through an apology later in the program, saying “it was a slip.”
Reacting to the “slip” by Fonda, one radio programmer contacted FMQB and asked, “Why do I have to live on the edge of my seat every single day feeling like I will get fired when national television can do this almost weekly?” The person also brought up another recent incident where television got off scott free when Diane Keaton dropped an F-Bomb on Good Morning America a couple months ago.
Granted, Kevin Martin and the FCC‘s hands are tied in situations like this ever since June ’07 when the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on behalf of broadcasters after Bono’s now infamous F-Bomb during the 2003 Golden Globes broadcast. During that show, Bono stated that receiving an award for the song “The Hands That Built America” was “fucking brilliant.”
Still, the programmer raises a good point, if Fonda or Keaton had made their statements on a show such as Opie & Anthony, the ramifications would have been much worse. And O&A, or any other radio host, would not have been allowed to give a smiley apology and laugh it off while moving on to a segment about love and relationships.
FMQB wants to know, do you feel there is a double standard with regard to fleeting expletives on television vs. radio?
