Why is it that cussing is not allowed much on television if we have "Freedom of Press" from the Constitution?

Question

It came to me that we have the ability to do whatever we want with press, music, television and other media because of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution in the United States, which is called "Freedom of Press", so why is it that cussing is not allowed much on television? I find it hard to believe that they cut out cuss words from adult programs. So why is it that they do that, isn't that against the constitution?

Answer 1

When it comes to the "Press", that generally pertains to periodicals, and young children do not read those, but they are exposed to TV. I don't let my son watch anything other than PBS or Disney Channel so I don't have to deal with the negative influence.

Answer 2

Wow... there's not one right answer here.

First, "freedom of the press" is NOT confined to printed media only -- First Amendment rights extend to (nearly) all "speakers". Second, "Freedom of the press" has hardly any additional rights granted than in the "Freedom of Speech" Clause of the First Amendment (i.e. Members of the press have no automatic right of access to otherwise off limits govenment information and have no "reporter's privilege" to refuse to answer questions under the constitution.)

That said, the reason cussing is not allowed on TV is because -- at least up until recently -- TV is "broadcast" over the airwaves. The Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction over these over-the-air transmissions, as the radio wave spectrum is limited, scarce, and considered a "public resource." In exchange for a license from the FCC, broadcasters must conform to a number of standards, some technical (like how many watts your TV station can broadcast) and some content-based (like no naughty words before 10 p.m.)
The touchstone case is FCC v. Pacifica, over the broadcasting of Carlin's "seven dirty words" sketch. A discussion of the opinion, including the reason that the court found that the First Amendment didn't prohibit the FCC's "indecency" regulations, can be found here:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/indecentspeech.htm

Answer 3

Certainly there is freedom of speech. However, the public domain has decided that the MAJORITY of people do not want to hear such language. Also, thank goodness, the sponsors of these shows realize that if the shows they sponsor are offensive to people then those people will NOT buy their products. Besides, don't you think that ideas can be put across using just the accepted words? Is it necessary to use profanity to get thoughts across?

Answer 4

because we don't have the right to do whatever we want through speech...and tv does not mean press...the press refers to news organizations not MTV and the Food Network....and usuallt cable tv is a lot less regulated than network tv due to accessibility.