Supreme Court to reconsider 'seven words' for TV

Everybody knows about the late comedian George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" monologue. And if you don't, I won't explain it here. It's the de facto standard of what can and can't be said over the public airwaves.

The U.S Supreme Court has upheld the FCC's authority to limit this kind of salty language on television as recently as 2009. But on Tuesday they'll reexamine the issue.

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

the U.S. Supreme Court gets another bite at the apple as the Obama administration defends the FCC's authority to provide children a safe harbor on broadcast television from indecency.

The government is supported by conservative family groups like the Parents TV Council, which points to a proliferation of curse words on broadcast TV (1,227 bleeped and unbleeped utterances of "fuck" and "shit" last year, according to the group) and warns that if networks get their way at the high court, it will mean that "the American people are going to get a rude awakening when broadcast TV becomes indistinguishable from Cinemax, HBO or something even more explicit."

The forthcoming ruling could go either way.