Fearful US TV networks censor more shows

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Guardian

Dominic Timms
Tuesday January 18, 2005

The panic that is gripping American TV bosses facing a puritanical backlash or exorbitant government fines has today extended to a cartoon series and a BBC drama.
Fox TV has decided to pixelate a bare derriere in a cartoon series, The Family Guy, which was originally broadcast five years ago with no complaints.

And American public television network PBS is censoring BBC drama documentary Dirty War, wary of attracting a public backlash and fines from the federal watchdog.

PBS, the American public television network, said it would cut scenes featuring a naked woman being decontaminated in a shower, in the film that centres on the aftermath of a dirty bomb attack on London.

Fox TV has already been hit by fines from the Federal Communications Commission with its network of affiliate stations each fined $7,000 in October for airing Married by America, a reality series in which a female contestant was seen licking cream from a male stripper's chest.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1393014,00.html