Vindication for Bono, Cher and Janet Jackson

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The real news from a federal appeals court's ruling that the Federal Communications Commission over stepped its bounds in policing "fleeting profanity" isn't that f-words and "wardrobe malfunctions" are now permitted on network TV.  It's that the court accepts the reality that such things are now considered socially acceptable, whether we like it or not.

The FCC, in this new media world where just about anything you wouldn't want your kids to see can be downloaded, has been trying to hold the line by levying hefty fines on broadcasters who show such things.  What they're really doing is to dumb down network TV to the point where they are fighting for survival.

Blurred body parts?  Those "Who's Your Daddy?" episodes of Maury Povich rendered unintelligible with all that bleeping?  No wonder folks have been fleeing to cable and the Internet, where the FCC has no jurisdiction.

(Maybe that's why we haven't seen much coverage of the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's allegedly hateful comments directed at his girlfriend.  Broadcasters couldn't have run the tapes without bleeping half of the dialogue out.)

You've heard of the V-chip?  That's the device included on most new TV sets that can block certain shows and channels that might have objectionable material.  Chances are, though, that most parents don't use it.  Or if they did, the kids might have found a way to defeat it.

And no matter how hard parents try to shield their kids from the realities of life, it just keeps getting tougher.  Block the channels if you must.  But kids usually learn bad words from their classmates at school, web sites, or visiting relatives.  As for the mysteries of sex?  Repeat the previous sentence.

Nevertheless, it should be parents who set boundaries on what their offspring see or hear.  Not groups like the Parents Television Council, who criticized the court's ruling.  They need to get out from behind their Bibles, get a life and leave the rest of us alone.

The FCC will decide soon whether or not to appeal the ruling any further, preferably to a more conservative court.  They should really focus their energies on regulating the new forms of media that seem to come out almost every day, instead of telling the rest of us what we can see or hear just because children might be watching.

Remember, if you don't like what's coming out of your video screen, we say:  You have a remote.  Use it.