PBS toughens policy on cursing in its shows
If there's a bellwether of how new federal regulations will affect television, it may be this: PBS is changing its rules about swearing.
In the wake of a series of fines imposed by the FCC this spring -- and in advance of a law signed this week, increasing by tenfold the cost of future fines -- PBS has sent a new set of guidelines to documentary producers. In shows that air before 10 p.m., compound words that are part obscenity, which used to be only partially bleeped, now must be bleeped in full. And if it's still possible to discern the word by reading a person's lips, his mouth must be digitally blurred.
That this is a delicate subject to describe in a daily newspaper is a sign that self-censorship does exist. PBS officials and filmmakers say they've long taken care to ensure that their shows don't use swear words gratuitously.
But cursing is sometimes necessary, in service of the truth, said Ken Burns , the veteran documentarian who created the PBS epics ``The Civil War," ``Baseball," and ``Jazz." (In the latter series, which aired in 2001, musicians used an obscenity that, Burns says, was ``part of the vocabulary and language of jazz.")
``This is part of the stuff of life, and we're charged in public television with capturing that," Burns said in a telephone interview this week. ``The War," his seven-part series on World War II, due to air on PBS in September 2007, will also include violent images and some swear words, which stations can choose to bleep or leave alone, he said.
``I just don't want a bureaucrat somewhere, who has no aesthetic sense or no emotional investment, to suddenly start applying some rudimentary rule that maybe was applied to a video game," Burns said. ``Somewhere along the line, we're going to have to draw the line and say, `That's enough.' "
Advocates of greater FCC regulation say filmmakers like Burns shouldn'tworry. The FCC has said it takes context into account when it reviews indecency complaints, said Melissa Caldwell ,senior director of research at the Parents Television Council, an advocacy group that helps viewers file complaints, and claims some credit for prompting the higher fines.
``As long as the people that are producing these documentaries aren't setting out with the intention of shocking and provoking and pushing the content envelope, they're going to be fine," Caldwell said.
But some broadcasters say recent FCC rulings have been arbitrary and confounding. In March, the FCC proposed a $15,000 fine on a community college public television station in San Mateo, Calif., for airing a Martin Scorsese-produced documentary on the blues that contained some swear words. But in an earlier ruling, the FCC decided not to impose fines on stations that aired ``Saving Private Ryan," a fictional film that was laced with obscenities.
And PBS officials say they're especially concerned because of the Broadcast Indecency Act, which President Bush signed on Thursday. The law increases the FCC's maximum fine -- imposed on stations that air shows deemed indecent -- from $32,500 to $325,000. The regulations don't apply to cable stations.
``A $325,000 fine to a single public television station could potentially mean that it would go into Chapter 11," said Lea Sloan , PBS's vice president of communications. ``So while we attempt to navigate this changing landscape of what indecency is or isn't, we feel as if we need to be prudent in our approach with our stations."
Still, it's unclear how directors and producers will handle the new guidelines. Boston's WGBH, a public television station that produces the documentary series ``American Experience" and ``
Instead, she said, WGBH will continue to offer two versions of its shows to other PBS stations: one with obscenities included, and one with them bleeped.
``It does mean taking risk on the part of WGBH," Drain said. ``But we feel strongly that there are certain instances that could warrant the use of language that, taken in context, could not possibly be deemed offensive or obscene."
Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com 
