Above: George Carlin on The Tonight Show in 1972, explaining being busted in Milwaukee for “The Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say On Television.”
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report notes: “Carlin was hauled in and booked on July 21, 1972, but the case of the seven dirty words was adjourned several times until Dec. 14, 1972, when it came up for trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Judge Raymond E. Gieringer from Adams County presided. Carlin faced a state charge of disorderly conduct, issued by the city after the district attorney’s office refused to issue a state criminal charge.
Gieringer ended up dismissing the case, saying the language was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance at the show.”
As a result of his arrest, George Carlin made Supreme Court history. TheFire.org:
In FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978) the Supreme Court upheld the FCC’s power to regulate so-called “indecent” broadcasts such as Carlin’s monologue. The Court’s decision was based primarily on what it held to be the unique status of broadcast speech, which “confronts the citizen, not only in public, but also in the privacy of the home,” and which “is uniquely accessible to children, even those too young to read.” The Court explicitly emphasized the “narrowness” of its holding in Pacifica. Of his role in this decision, Carlin said that “my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I’m perversely kind of proud of.”
Open thread below…
