By one of those odd coincidences I was in the loo reading the chapter ‘The Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television’ in Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought when I heard the news.
Ah 1972, I remember it well — well hazily anyway. Hopefully, that’s a result of the chemical and alcohol smog on campus at the time rather than a sign of incipient dementia.
According to the New York Times, WBAI ‘can’t take a chance’ on rebroadcasting the programme that led to the Supreme Court case because it ‘would cost us $360,000 per incident — so those seven words would cost us $2.5 million’.
georgecarlin.com includes the Supreme Court decision and the transcripy of the ‘Filthy Words’ monologue.
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