Dylan special was CENSORED. Complain to PBS

[LisaM]

I guess this is the result of right-wingers running the place. PBS sent two versions to all the stations, one edited for language and one not, and only one station (WNET) showed it as it was made. This is ridiculous. I am tired of being spoonfed sanitized pabulum.

[Zomby Woof]

1. A better solution

If they hassle you for funds, tell them you took the money you were going to give them and put it into buying the DVD of the documentary instead. :P

[LisaM]

7. That would entail my purchasing a DVD player

funny, it's the third time in two days someone has told me to buy a DVD.

[Zomby Woof]

8. I am not TELLING you to

I was offering a creative solution for anyone receptive to it.

I can tell you this much: My solution would be more effective than yours, because those corporate whores at PBS DON'T CARE what you think.

But it sure gets under their skin when you tell them you will no longer donate. They won't change policy, but they will be irritated.

Neither solution will end censorship on PBS - but mine will at least have an immediate, negative reaction. And really, isn't that what we're here for? :P

[jane_pippin]

2. Are you talking about beeping out swear words?

Or is there something else?

[LisaM]

3. No, bleeping the swear words

I noticed them doing that, but didn't realize that my station had chosen that version over the other, till I read about it today. And it pisses me off. Geesh, the Canadian station we get ran "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" on prime time television with all the swear words in it and we were startled to hear them because we'd only ever seen it on NBC and didn't know there were any! I expect better from PBS.

[jane_pippin]

5. Well, I see your point but I didn't expect to hear swearing on PBS

in the first place so it didn't really bug me in this instance. But I do agree with you on the larger point that it's silly it would be bleeped out at all. I think people can handle a few naughty words here and there.

[MyUncle]

4. It was Joan Baez dropping f-bombs.

I agree with this. It is NOT cable.

[LisaM]

6. She wasn't the only one, there were others

and this was on at 9:00 p.m. and she wasn't even at the beginning. Of course, the Yahoo article references Joan Baez, a WOMAN doing it, but there were plenty of men who were bleeped out too.

[miss_kitty]

9. Actually, back in the day, between Cook and Baker on MPT

they ran 'Impromptu' on PBS. With all the swear words. I still live to tell the tale.

Whether it's cable or not, there are two simple solutions run together that'll keep 'innocent' ears from hearing the word 'fuck' on the TV (as if they don't hear it in real life, or use it themselves):
Run it late and run a warning. Let people censor themselves. I don't want fucking prudes to tell me what I can't hear or say. I find that extremely fucking offensive, that someone I don't know becomes the arbiter of what I see and hear after 9 or 10 PM at night.

Fuck off prudes!!!!11!!!!

[LisaM]

10. You and I think alike. Prudishness is a pet peeve of mine

and I'm not exactly a wild, wanton woman, but I dislike puritanism and creepy moral superiority.

Zomby, I actually thought of threatening to not pledge, but here's the thing - do you think that the current leadership at PBS wants it to continue, or do they want to starve it to death?

[Zomby Woof]

12. They want to starve it, Norquist-style

PBS can still produce great programming, but it is a shell of what it once was, sadly.

[nini]

11. Doesn't this go beyond PBS?

Because it's not a cable station doesn't it fall under the rules of any other network?