The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has started to actively enforce regulations that restrict what can be said on broadcast television and radio. The FCC regulates media that can be received with an antenna, but does not control media broadcasted over cable and satellite. However, the FCC is trying to gain jurisdiction over cable and satellite broadcasting. The Federal Communication Commission is now the court appointed parent to all of the local television and radio stations in the country. And their power is based on seven words.
             The controversy over using profanity in a public place had begun many years before the FCC banned the use of obscene language on TV and radio. The original debate came to a head in the 1960s when Lenny Bruce became the last person to be arrested for using obscene language in public. Bruce, a satirical comic, used profanity to talk about words in general, and used language that the audience was used to hearing(Penn & Teller, "Bullshit"). Lenny Bruce paved the way for the comics today by using "offensive speech" in a non-offensive way.
             The major controversy started in 1973 when WBAI, a New York City radio station, played George Carlin's eleven and a half minute monologue, "Filthy Words." This monologue was an amendment to Carlin's original "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." Acting on the formal complaint of a concerned listener, the FCC declared that the "seven dirty words" can no longer be said on broadcast television. The Pacifica Foundation, the parent company of WBAI, challenged the declaration. The order was reversed by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, but in 1978 the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the FCC had the jurisdiction to regulate what can and cannot be said on broadcast television and radio.
             The original "seven dirty words" are what the FCC uses to base their regulations. ...