PASADENA, Calif. – The culture war over indecency that boiled over after Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl peep show more than two years ago is poised to claim its first casualty: staid, sober PBS.
“This is not just about Janet Jackson,” said Paula Kerger, president of PBS. “This is a tremendously important issue. It is an issue of free speech. It is an issue because our filmmakers deserve to be able to tell their stories and tell them well.”
And one of PBS’ most prolific producers, Ken Burns, the auteur of groundbreaking series including “Jazz,” “Baseball” and “The Civil War,” is concerned that his upcoming documentary about World War II could be a target.
“I know that there are people that are sensitive about language,” said Kerger. “And they should have the opportunity not to watch something if it’s going to be troubling. But for others to be able to see a documentary and to be able to let a person tell their own story and not censor the words that are coming out of their mouth is tremendously important.”
Burns’ “The War” includes interviews with veterans; some of them use coarse language to describe their experiences. It is scheduled to air next fall.
The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act was signed into law last month by President Bush. It increases fines the FCC can levy against broadcast television and terrestrial radio by tenfold to $325,000. The problem, said Kerger, is that the FCC’s standards are extremely murky and many PBS stations, with paltry annual budgets of a couple million dollars, could be easily put out of business by the fines.
The PBS station in San Mateo, Calif., is appealing a $15,000 FCC fine for profanity spoken by the musical pioneers in Martin Scorsese’s documentary “The Blues.” (The FCC stipulates that programming aired between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. should be “family friendly.” “The Blues” aired from 8 to 10 p.m.) Like many broadcasters, PBS labels all of its programming for adult language and subject matter.
The irony here is that when it comes to upholding high standards of decency and decorum, PBS would seem beyond reproach. Case in point: the recent firing of Melanie Martinez, the PBS Kids Sprout host, for appearing in a racy comedy short that found its way to the Internet.
According to Kerger, Martinez didn’t disclose her work in “Technical Virgin” before she was hired.
“She only revealed it after she found out it was posted on the Internet,” she said. “I think if she had revealed it up front, we probably would not have hired her because I think what we were looking for in the host of “Sprout’ is someone that is really representative of PBS.”
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AP-NY-07-27-06 0941EDT
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