Broadcasting out of New York City was doing a program on contemporary

attitudes toward the use of language. This broadcast occurred on a

mid-afternoon weekday. Immediately before the broadcast the station

announced a disclaimer telling listeners that the program would

include "sensitive language which might be regarded as offensive to

some."(Gunther, 1991) As a part of the program the station decided to

air a 12 minute monologue called "Filthy Words" by comedian George

Carlin. The introduction of Carlin's "routine" consisted of, according

to Carlin, "words you couldn't say on the public air waves."(Carlin,

1977) The introduction to Carlin's monologue listed those words and

repeated them in a variety of colloquialisms:

I was thinking about the curse words and the swear words, the cuss

words and the words that you can't say, that you're not supposed to

say all the time. I was thinking one night about the words you

couldn't say on the public, ah, airwaves, um, the ones you definitely

wouldn't say, ever. Bastard you can say, and hell and damn so I have

to figure out which ones you couldn't and ever and it came down to

airwaves. There were no specific laws or surveillance by regulatory

the most limited protection of the first amendment. There are two main

the government want's to conform people to their way of thinking,

to other broadcasters that the FCC would not tolerate indecent

something that was offensive to them and reported it to the FCC, the

Show running just as it was. Mr. Wildmon's organization still

Some common words found in the essay are:
Supreme Court, Foundation FCC, Howard Stern, George Carlin, Pacifica Foundation, Pacifica FCC, York City, Infinity Broadcasting, Supreme CourtGunther, Wildmon Wildmon, howard stern, supreme court, indecent material, power regulate, carlin's monologue, infinity broadcasting, indecent obscene, pacifica foundation, seven dirty words, dirty words, morality america, fcc pacifica foundation, fcc power regulate, power regulate radio, stern infinity broadcasting,
Approximate Word count = 2399
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)