Columnist Bob Edwards ponders why certain words are deemed "bad" and traces the legal history of profanity in American and British media. He runs from the Victorian era and the 1857 Obscene Publications Act through the Comstock Act to a series of Supreme Court rulings that variously protected vulgar language, defined obscenity and, in 1978, upheld the FCC's power to ban "filthy words" on the air.
Read the full story: Bob Edwards: What the ****?? And Other Blasphemies, Obscenities And Potty Talk — Sonoma Valley Sun, Aug 9.
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