I think I am suffering from déjà vu right now. It would not be the first time. When Barry White died, my first response was, “Again?” The same thing happened again when Bob Hope died. Now I am feeling it again.
There is a documentary about 9/11 that was filmed on the actual day. There is nothing re-enacted. Everything is real and recorded as it happened. It was called simply 9/11 and was narrated by Robert De Niro. It is a freak of history the tape even exists, but it does and it is a record of bravery and sacrifice.
Two French documentary film makers, brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet, were making a movie about a year in the life of a rookie firefighter in New York. They were with Engine 7, Ladder 1 in lower Manhattan and, as fate would have it, were among the first to respond to the scene on that horrible day. They not only shot the only known footage of the first plane hitting the towers, but they have footage from inside WTC One through the collapse of WTC Two. This is more than a documentary, this is history as it happened.
CBS has aired the documentary twice already in fact, once on the six-month anniversary and the second time on the one year anniversary of the terror attacks. Both times it aired there was little if any controversy surrounding the language found on the tapes. It seems that people curse quite a bit when faced with death and destruction and we as a nation realized the importance of what we were seeing. We looked beyond the bad words and focused on what was important. Now it also appears that some of us have forgotten, because there is a controversy about it airing again on the five-year anniversary.
The problem is the broadcasters are scared right now post-Janet Jackson. They fear the fine increase that was $32,500 and is now $325,000. They fear a finicky and ever-changing definition of what is obscene. Twelve CBS affiliates have already declined to show this powerful documentary and another twelve said they will show it later at night. This is all about words being spoken amid carnage and chaos. The focus on what is obscene in this is ridiculous beyond words.
Article comments
1 - Brent
The American Family Association and its supposedly secular doppelganger the Parent's Television Council operate within a climate of fear. It's not helped by increased fines and FCC definitions of "indecency" and "obscenity" that are just a hair above "I'll know it when I see it." And in related news the PTC has ordered its brainwashed acolytes to bombard the FCC with protests because Helen Mirren and Calista Flockhart said "ass over tit" on the Emmys. This is the sort of BS that makes those of us outside the United States (I'm a Canadian where you can say just about anything on TV) shake our heads and wonder about the US as a nation.
2 - Dave Nalle
May I just say 'Fuck the AFA and the Biblical donkey they rode in on".
Dave
3 - Phillip Winn
This is just bizarre. The AFA surely has better things to do.
4 - Mark Schannon
It was an incredible, thoughtful, and, to the extent possible, tasteful documentary. One of the best I've ever seen. Screw the jerks who don't want to see it, but screw the CBS affiliates even more who are running scared.
what a pathetic country this has become.
In Jameson Veritas
5 - Mike
"The AFA surely has better things to do."
That, sir, is where you are gravely mistaken. They most surely DO NOT have anything better to do.
Remember: the "uproar" over JJ's boobie was, in reality, 26 people sending in multiple copies of 3 letters. It was SO OFFENSIVE, that only 3 people found it worth the time to actually send in their own letter. In reality, no one really gave a shit.
The whackos at the AFA and the PTC certainly do not have something better to do than complain about hearing the words "tits" and "ass" They will continue to contaminate our programming and censor our media for us until someone stands up to them.
I've started sending "Compliments" letters to anything that the PTC or AFA says should be complained about. I thank the network for not wasting their time on useless censorship, then encourage the FCC to ignore the PTC and the AFA. Maybe my one letter can cancel out one of the complaints?
6 - Brad Schader
The best part of the JJ affair was that on the Monday following the Super Bowl the FCC had gotten no complaints. Tuesday no complaints. Wednesday it was on a website to complain and Thursday the FCC was flooded.
Not only was it not many people, but it was people who did not even see it.
7 - Andy Dabydeen
For fucks sake!
8 - Christine
I totally agree. What cursing? who cares. I'm a Christian and a mom, but this did not bother me a bit. What was disturbing is the reality of it all. I watched it for the first time last night, I sat there glued to the tv, crying like a baby. I don't remember it affecting me this much in the past.
This documentary shows it how it was - raw & uncut, we deserve to see it, to know what happened.
I hope they air it again.