Newest danger to America: swearing Little Leaguers
Steve Safran August 23rd, 2006
ESPN is putting the Little League World Series on a five-second delay after one of the Staten Island kids swore. Mind you, after the kid swore, his manager “appeared to have then struck the player with his open hand, according to the Associated Press.” So now swearing is cause for panic, but apparently child abuse is not.
18 Comments Add your own
1. Deathmagus | August 23rd, 2006 at 10:33 am
Striking an out of line child with an open hand is not child abuse. There is no permanent damage; the child will not be scarred for life. Honestly. Punishment is not child abuse.
2. Cory | August 23rd, 2006 at 10:43 am
Oh boy, this outta be interesting.
3. brian | August 23rd, 2006 at 10:44 am
Ha! Child abuse? That’s cute. It’s even italicized.
4. John | August 23rd, 2006 at 10:47 am
The video seemed to show only that the coach kind of slapped the top of the brim of the kid’s ballcap, hardly a reviewable offense.
Here’s the scenario — kid learns bad language at home, kid uses it to try to pump up team full of 12-year-olds playing on ESPN (no pressure there), kid gets his ballcap slapped for a split second. No one got too out of line here at all. End of non-story.
5. Safran | August 23rd, 2006 at 11:29 am
First - I was exaggerating to make a point. No, there is no harm done by smacking the kids’ hat. Neither is there any harm done by hearing him say “Fuck!” on television, any more than there is hearing it all the time in person. The problem is the fear of the FCC’s arbitrary rules.
6. KC | August 23rd, 2006 at 11:51 am
I for one am glad the FCC is cracking down. We don’t use the F word in my house (my kids think the F word is Fart). Let’s remember that over-the-air stations ARE public airwaves and none of us should have to put up with hearning language of that sort. A five second delay is not too much to ask for and neither is the expectation that the airwaves be clean of crap.
7. Steve | August 23rd, 2006 at 11:58 am
Finally, real life becoming as amusing as watching a rerun of The Bad News Bears.
8. Anthony | August 23rd, 2006 at 12:56 pm
Why dont they ask the kid how he feels about it since we all have made up his mind for him
9. Jeff V | August 23rd, 2006 at 1:05 pm
I’m all for non-swearing kids - I’m still shocked with my 16 year old lets a swear word loose in front of me - but KC, ESPN is not an over-the-air network. It is a service subscribed to by the viewers. For the FCC to try to sanction ESPN for this would just be further down the slippery slope.
I think delays are acceptable in live news situations and perhaps court proceedings in case something untoward happens, like a death in a car chase or something of that nature.
10. themanhattanchannel | August 23rd, 2006 at 1:21 pm
kids will never learn!
had he just said “MACACA!” instead of “%$&^”, he could have had GW come around and raise money for his re-election campaign.
11. JMT | August 24th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I have been swearing since childhood and am perfectly functional, moral and happy. Why must we censor what can be very expressive terms? What is inherently offensive about these particular terms?… a baseless puritanical precedent?
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