I was watching The Ed Show on MSNBC this afternoon, and was struck by the on-screen graphics during the Psycho Talk segment. They had a picture of a anti-HCR rally featuring a placard with the by-now expected images of swastikas, Hitlers, and Obamas. But what stood out for me was the printed slogan:
"Same shit
different a**hole."
As musician who considers himself an artist, I watch for corporate censorship whenever I'm consuming media. I find it so offensive when the Standards and Practices departments at the various networks deem it their responsibility to enforce the aesthetic tastes of conservative viewers on the entire audience, even when that audience is expected to be composed entirely of adults, that I will often change the channel and/or rattle off a nasty email. There is no excuse to offend one group (all of my peers feel similarly to me on this issue) at the expense of protecting another when the technology is omnipresent to accomplish the same task without offensive side-effects.
So when I saw this I was intrigued. Who exactly would find the word "asshole" offensive, but not the word "shit"? Certainly not the S&P department at MSNBC, since this example of the words in question are direct metaphors for their respective terms. Both would normally have been blacked out by S&P or a producer. This censorship was done with a sharpie, most likely by the person who photocopied the broadsides. Whether that was the same person holding the sign will never be known, but whoever it is -- they are a true, though awful, artist.
To be clear, I don't expect general audience shows like news programs to allow profane language to pass -- it's only when censorship intrudes on a good story or ruins a joke (ever watch Demolition Man on basic cable? Why does Wesley Snipes keep getting fined?!)that I'm offended. However, profanity doesn't tend to offend me as much as a few smells do, and not nearly as much as censorship does.