Had 9/11: A Tale of Two Towers on, and someone said "fuck". Repeatedly.

Is that kosher?

Since I work for a PBS station, I'll try and answer...

The short version is "Yes, sort of..."

The long version is a bit more complicated, especially since the Super Bowl.

PBS has usually offered two versions of shows with adult content. One is the unedited version and then there is a more tv friendly version. Local stations could choose which one they wanted to air. It depends on the size of the market in question (places like New York, LA, etc. would presumably get less static from viewers over bad words than more conservative areas)

It appears that your PBS station probably aired the unedited version.

PBS has gotten a bit more cautious about offering "clean" versions since the Super Bowl.

Hope this helps!

That does help. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy or anything. Thanks!

I know that on public radio, you can catch people cussing all of the time. It's refreshing to know that not every facet of communication is censored.

I don't think it is a PBS situation. Swearing and nudity are allowed if the program is deemed educational as in a documentary where it is being used to show the horror/emotion/etc. So any channel can show the stuff, but most play it safe. PBS is primarily educaitonal and show a lot of this stuff, so they know what they are doing and I'm sure are trusted by the FCC to make the right decision on what to show.

Edit: And the 9/11 doc certainly qualifies as educational.

One word:

Steambath

For the PBS edition of Wattstax the other night, they bleeped out all the utterancess of the word "shit"

mmmmmm steambath.....

I still remember valerie's.....

It's really up to them.

They can legally show whatever they want, but the more extreme they become, the greater chance they have of losing public support, and thus, Govt. funding.

They have to find a happy medium.

Now if Big Bird said the F-word... look out!