Airwaves & Liberty

Like the headline? I think Carlin would approve.

There have already been thousands – maybe millions – of tributes to George Carlin over the last 36 hours since the great comic died in New York at age 71. As a comedian, he was blunt, profane, and hilarious in his critique of our often-absurd use of language.

It was one of those examinations of language use (and regulation) that got us in trouble over here at Pacifica. In 1973, WBAI host Paul Gorman broadcast, unedited, George Carlin’s “Filty Words” monologue — the one with the “seven dirty words” sprinkled throughout. A listener complained to the FCC, which in turn sanctioned WBAI/Pacifica. Pacifica challenged that decision and valiantly fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court, making the radical claim that free speech ought to also apply to broadcasting. Our lawyers argued that Carlin was a significant social satirist who uses the language of ordinary people. They argued: “Carlin is not mouthing obscenities, he is merely using words to satirize as harmless and essentially silly our attitudes towards those words.”

We lost. And the FCC has been in the business of regulating dirty words ever since.

Carlin said he was “perversely kind of proud of” being a footnote in American legal history. In fact, he maintained a compilation of documents from the case on his website, including this FCC-generated transcript of the “Filthy Words” monologue.

I think I can say that Pacifica was and is proud to have fought the Carlin case. Even if the Supreme Court didn’t rule in our favor, it was worth a shot and Carlin was certainly a great act to work with on it. He was a terrific observer of society and satirist, and we’ll miss him.

Last year, the Pacifica Radio Archives produced a one-hour program about the “Carlin Case”. The first half includes interviews with WBAI host Paul Gorman, former FCC Commissioners, a lawyer for the National Association of Broadcasters, and a minister. It also includes a healthy dose of the “Filthy Words” monologue — edited for language, naturally, as this was produced for broadcast.

The second half hour features two interviews with George Carlin himself – one in 1970 before his “Filthy Words” routine was broadcast on WBAI, and the other conducted by Larry Bensky at KPFA in June 1997, nearly 30 years later. Together, they provide an interesting time-lapse perspective.

I’ll close here with a quote Carlin gave to The Onion A.V. Club in 2005. I think it sums up where Carlin was coming from and why we found him so endearing:

“There is a certain amount of righteous indignation I hold for this culture, because to get back to the real root of it, to get broader about it, my opinion that is my species — and my culture in America specifically — have let me down and betrayed me. I think this species had great, great promise, with this great upper brain that we have, and I think we squandered it on God and Mammon. And I think this culture of ours has such promise, with the promise of real, true freedom, and then everyone has been shackled by ownership and possessions and acquisition and status and power… And perhaps it’s just a human weakness and an inevitable human story that these things happen. But there’s disillusionment and some discontent in me about it. I don’t consider myself a cynic. I think of myself as a skeptic and a realist. But I understand the word ‘cynic’ has more than one meaning, and I see how I could be seen as cynical. ‘George, you’re cynical.’ Well, you know, they say if you scratch a cynic you find a disappointed idealist. And perhaps the flame still flickers a little, you know?”

We’ll keep it flickering as best we can, pal.