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The US Supreme Court has just ruled that a ban on swearing by broadcasters is unconstitutional. As of now, our on-air media brethren can legally say whatever comes to mind. The FCC (Federal Broadcast Commission) calls the ruling “anti-family” but the court ruled that the FCC policy had a “chilling” effect on broadcasters.

Maybe we’re just out of the habit of saying whatever we f-well like here, but the Court decision leaves us nearly speechless. Comedian George Carlin’s famous seven banned words that led to the FCC rule, now overturned, are not likely to start making frequent appearances. One of the issues for the court was the difficulty of providing a clear definition of what offends, but the FCC has promised to go to work on that.

If there’s one job I don’t think I would want, it’s the FCC staffer’s task of wading through s-y language to determine if someone is a real m-f-r if he or she says c-t.

(Hey, we’re not in the US! Politeness rules!)

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