Censoring the Greatest Generation

I'm a big fan of Ken Burns' chronicles of American history. So naturally I look forward to watching his new ambitious documentary about World War II, which debuts on PBS tonight across the country. When I read about the sanitizing of this historical document, I was taken back a bit.

Apparently the greatest generation also threw around a few profanities - and clearly describing the hell of war, such language should be expected. Here's what they have to say:

• SNAFU, which is not an acronym for Situation Normal All Fouled Up.

• FUBAR, which does not stand for Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.

• A popular vulgarity for excrement, and another for a part of the human anatomy. The words are used by a former ball-turret gunner describing what it's like to be seriously wounded on a B-17 bombing raid over Germany.

Two four-letter words and one seven-letter word, used in passing by members of "The Greatest Generation" as they describe the most hellish war the world has known so far.

Rather than risk a $325,000 fine per word from the FCC -- if the offensive words are broadcast between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. -- PBS provided two cuts of War and allowed stations to decide which one to air.

Here's the thing, The FCC allowed the same language to be used in a ABC prime-time showing of Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" -- a fictional account WW 2 -- a couple of years ago. In my book, I discuss the often arbitrary nature of the FCC's take on speech.

In any event, which red-blooded American is going to complain about PBS airing a soldier using the acronym FUBAR? Does anyone else find it ironic that a film documenting the great sacrifices of freedom will have the words of the very men who fought for it edited out?

Comments

[Rondo]

07:33 AM on 09/30/2007

Someone please direct me to the rule on this website that comments can not stray off topic.

The trolls as always like to make up rules to justify their decidely unpatriotic intolerance.

I was fascinated by the joint WW2 Mexican USA military operations cited above.

Ken Burns WW2 series is a predominately euro american celebration with occassional side bars to "it can't happen here" domestic racial conflicts narrated by some academic drone over the mind numbing music of frank sinatra and glenn miller.

[pgg804]

10:21 PM on 09/24/2007

I don't think a progam that focuses on the United States can give you an idea of what a war in Europe (and Asia) was like. Europeans lost over 50 million people and the United States lost about 400,000 people. Most of the people died in fighting between the Germany and the Soviet Union. Germany lost about 8 million people. The Soviets about 25 million people. To focus on the United States in WW II would be like making a documentary about the American Civil war and focus on how that affected Europeans. No offense intended.

[Tom Gerosolina]

05:36 PM on 09/24/2007

You are Fuck A Right man

[thinkgra]

05:25 PM on 09/24/2007

Throughout history, tribes and nations have fought over land and resources. There's not one piece of this planet that any group can say "belongs" to them. Even the tribal boundaries of aboriginal people have shifted over time as the resources within them have changed due to climate.
We really need to get over this. I only wish I knew what the alternative would look like.

[peaceandfreedom]

09:33 PM on 09/24/2007

I think of these things ever time I hear one of my friends, as an excuse for illegal immigration, say that, "well, you know, California belonged to the Mexicans before it did us!"

And I always say, "Yes, and no. Because they stole it from the Indians that were here before them, and those guys pushed the Indians that settled it first a little farther down the line, so exactly, who are you going to give it back to?"

The curse of our hard wired genetics and the cause of all conflict.

[lexdee]

04:41 PM on 09/24/2007

Well fellow readers, the above contributions are what we get because of a viral infection called religion. Which religion or whose religion doesn't matter. Religion is against everything that exists in reality and is for only those things that exist in their fantasies of power and repressed sexuality. I'm all for why can't we all get along....but the answer is get religion out of our lives and with it repression of women, censorship, and all those other nasty leftovers from the Dark Ages. Oh, and Rush Limbaugh. Let freedom ring!

[rseog]

02:19 PM on 09/24/2007

I watched the first episode of Ken Burns' WWII documentary and found it to be excellent. It seems that all the different ethnic groups want to be number one. We should just be proud Americans. That is what I am.

[FOXYLADY]

12:35 PM on 09/24/2007

LET THE MEMBERS OF THE "GREATEST GENERATION" TELL IT "LIKE IT IS/WAS"!! OF ANYONE FINDS IT OFFENSIVE, ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS TURN OFF THE PROGRAM.......WATCHED IT LAST NIGHT AND SAW PICTURES THAT I'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE ABOUT THE NAZI/JAPS ATROSITIES...I WAS A CHILD DURING THE WAR BUT DON'T REMEMBER MUUCH EXCEPT THE RATIONING AND, LIVING IN NYC, WEARING A LUCITE TAG AROUND MY NECK AT SCHOOL AS INDENTIFICATION. AS A FRESHMAN IN HS I REMEMBER THE BLACK OUTS IN THE SMALL TOWN WE MOVED TO.....NOW I KNOW O WHAT THOSE CHILDREN IN EUROPE SUFFERED DURING THAT TIME. I HOPE WE NEVER, HERE IN THE UNITED STATES, HAVE TO SUFFER AS THEY DID!!

[justfacefacts]

12:15 PM on 09/24/2007

It was a WORLD WAR was it not? Great sacrifice was done both at home and on the battlefield. The vets in our family spoke little of their experiences in their lifetime. They did what they had to and shut their mouths preferring to get on with life. More to admire them for.

[richw23]

12:02 PM on 09/24/2007

So mcuh of what the right targets has to do with sex, and when it comes to language, of course, elimination. Why are they so obsessed? They assume people "turn gay", apparently because everyone is tempted to "be gay". Why would they assume that unless they are so repressed they don't know what actual sexual desire is?

[Levittown]

11:05 AM on 09/24/2007

The FCC uses fines as a warning. Don't be anti this administration or else. If they wamted to do the right thing they should have fined the performers ( Jackson and Timberlake) and not the network. A warning to all performers was called for. Don't take the public airwaves
as a means for obscene acts or speech.

[Spookcatcher]

06:39 AM on 09/26/2007

I would rather my children understand that it is more plausible for the definition of obscenity be applied more aptly towards the Jackson's World View of entertainment and the real nothing talent of Timberlake, than that a grandparent uses a swear word, that they get uninvitedly exposed to everday in the grocery stores (unfortunately) by crude uncaring strangers, and everyday on TV, when a WW2 Veteran Family member (or Korean or Vietnam, Etc.) uses whatever verbage they choose to describe their true life experiences in context of the OBSCENITY of the War they participated in. The Freedom of Speech in the U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights Demands it! The FCC has committed treason.

[waynesmyer]

10:28 AM on 09/24/2007

VFW Post 3189:Mexico City: Fausto Vega Santender Post; Thanks Nelson! Wayne Smyer

[bob3785]

10:26 AM on 09/24/2007

In the "Excited States" as friends affectionately refer to it the controversy over a few anglo-saxon words commonly used is hardly surprising in a country that went berserk for weeks over an exposed nipple. One of the wisest things ever said is that the first casualty in war is truth and that too often applies to the later discussion of war. The gross exaggeration of the American contribution to WW1 and WW II is great deception of the American people in the glorification of militarism. Others , including the Russians overwhelming contribution which was decisive and the British made far greater proportionate contributions. D-Day for example involved 7 divisions of which three were American , three British and one Canadian. The Eastern , Russian front confronted 350 German Divisions and engaged unknown millions who died , military and civilian

[Akass]

10:23 AM on 09/24/2007

Ken Burns seems to have left out more than graphic language. He left out important facts such as the fact that big American business did big dollar business with Mussolini and Hitler when they were on the rise and in so doing aided and abetted those villains in building their professional armies while they--American business--made fortunes. He also left out the fact that the U.S. embargoed Japan, ignoring State Department warnings that to do so would provoke Japan into attacking the U.S. After more than 60 years, one would hope that it is now safe to challenge the "good war" narrative that we've all been indoctrinated into accepting as being complete and true and final. That "good war" set the stage for the rampant U.S. militarism that infects the entire planet today. It cemented the existence of the U.S. military/industrial/congressional complex that now converts our public treasury into private profits making weapons of mass destruction and inflicting human misery around the globe. Looks to me like Burns is just being a shill for the U.S. war machine. He lost me in the first 30 minutes.

[FOXYLADY]

12:37 PM on 09/24/2007

NO SUCH THING "AS A GOOD WAR"!!

[Spookcatcher]

06:21 AM on 09/26/2007

You are now officially off the White House Christmas Card List. (Enjoy, me too!)

[The Thinker]

10:08 AM on 09/24/2007

Burns simply should have done that part in rap.

[waynesmyer]

09:37 AM on 09/24/2007

The Mexico City VFW Post( (Veterans Of Foreign Wars) was established by my friend and fellow soldier,Sgt.Nelson and Col. Carlos Garduno, Mexican Air Force (retired)in memory of the Esquadron 201 pilots who died fighting in the South Pacific in World War II. Col. Garduno is one of the surviving pilots of the 201 and has some interesting stories about the Squadron. There is a historical memorial in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City dedicated to those who died. [e-mail]

[peaceandfreedom]

09:29 PM on 09/24/2007

This is not a documentary about Mexico's role in WWII. Stop spamming us with your off-topic posts.