Back in 2002 the Martin Scorcese directed film The Gangs of New York
would be released. Starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Daniel Day Louis and Cameron Diaz. the film
would be Set in new york city during the 1860’s. The movie would exploree the theme
of revenge and the irish’s struggle to find their identity in America. And the Irish band U2 would
contribute the song the hands that built america as part of the film's soundtrack.
The movie would be nominated for several golden globe and academy awards.
At the 2003 golden globe awards U2’s song would win the award for best original song.
Here’s the clip of Bono and the Edge from U2 accepting the award. And the winner is
told ya boys. The hands that built america, the gangs of new york, music and lyrics U2.
This is really really fking brilliant and ah really really great.
The Federal Communication Commision or FCC which regulates broadcast television and public radio,
claimed to have received hundreds of viewer complaints about the incident. I kid you not
the FCC launched a full investigation to determine whether the use of the F word from Bono’s speech
was considered indecent. So you're maybe wondering, what does the FCC consider indecent
language? Well according their own website indecent speech refers to as “language or
material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive, as measured by
contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities,”
NBC who broadcast the awards show had a lot to be scared of. If found guilty,
theycould have faced hefty fines and impacts to their operating licenses. The FCC spent
nearly nine months investigating this matter initially making a ruling in October of 2003
that Bono did not use indecent language on live TV because of the context in which the F word was
used. The enforcement bureau put out a statement saying that Bono's comment was not indecent or
obscene because he did not use the word to describe a sexual act stating "The performer
used the f word ... as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation," they'd say.
Meanwhile, the Parents Television Council a special interest group who claims to have
more than a million members and pushes for censorship. appealed the decision putting out
a statement to the LA Times saying “They don’t take indecency seriously and that’s why you see
it proliferating on the broadcast airwaves,” Now apparently the ruling by the FCC also garnered
almost quarter of a million angry responses from the public according to the newspaper.
U2 wasn’t out of the woods yet. Going forward the golden globes were aired on a ten second delay.
And Fast forward to 2004 a the Super Bowl halftime show and the infamous Janet Jackson nip slip would
happen that seemed to offend the entire nation. This is exactly what happened. I was sitting at
a neighbour's party on a couch watching the half time show and first of all it sort of jumped out
at me and I was like wow this is a little more racier than usual the dance was pretty
wild as it was and so i was watching and all of a sudeen i watched it and i turned
to my neighbour and i said did you just see what i saw or am i dreaming he goes
i think so and we still weren't sure. And i went home and fired up my TIVO and started rewinding
and realized oh my god and then the news started going and i just said
to my son and turned to my wife and said tomorrow is really gonna suck and it did.
The FCC apparently received half a million complaints just about that incident alone.
In fact 2004 was a record year for the FCC who claimed they received over one million complaints
about indecency across Television and Radio.. For reference the regulators only received a total of
350 complaints in 2001, 14,000 in 2002 and 200,000 in 2003. To lodge a complaint it was pretty easy
you could just do it with a few clicks of your mouse and that was it. In 2004 the FCC launched
a crackdown against broadcasters over indecency and levied more than 8 million dollars in fines
mostly against clear channel radio which broadcasted howard stern’s radio show.
By mach of 2004 the FCC would end up reversing their original ruling about Bono’s use of the
fword. The FCC ruled that Bono’s use of the f word was in-fact “indecent
and profane.” Taxpayer money well spent. It marked a dark shift in the FCC who were
now going after broadcasters regardless of the context of how the word was used. Before
the ruling in 2004, isolated, nonsexual use of the expletive was not necessarily considered indecent.
Lucky for Bono and NBC the federal government decided not to lob fines against them.
Going forward, the FCC would treat any use of the fword as indecent stating “This sends a
signal to the industry that the gratuitous use of such vulgar language on broadcast television
will not be tolerated,” In 2004 radio host howard stern set a record for the largest
fine in history getting hit with a $1.75M by the federal government. Stern’s broadcaster clear
channel paid the fine and it was no surprise that stern announced the same year he was moving to
satellite radio, which the federal government couldn’t touch because it was a paid service.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.