MCLA Blog

“The Best of Our Knowledge # 842 ”
From WAMC’s website:
THE CHALLENGE OF INDECENT LANGUAGE IN CULTURE AND IN EDUCATION -
The conflict over swear words in language arises everyday in classrooms between students and teachers, and at home between parents and children. Some may look on this as a moral decline of society. Others are more inclined to merely accept it as the way culture is evolving. For examples you need only listen to the radio and watch TV. That’s where the Federal Communications Commission enters the discussion. Last Spring, the FCC issued a new policy stating that almost without exception, the use of the s-word and the f-word are indecent on broadcast televison and radio. The major television networks sued to block the new policy, arguing that it was unconstitutional. But a recent ruling by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocks the FCC from enforcing those new standards while the case is considered. With the widespread impact indecent language has at school and at home, we wanted to try and find out just what makes a bad word bad. TBOOK found a professor who looks at a wide range of research on the subject. Greg Dahlmann reports. (6:15)

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