Advocacy group seeks FCC ban on term ‘midget’
July 7th, 2009From Newsday, Associated Press:
At the annual Little People of America (LPA) conference, the national advocacy organization called for the Federal Communications Commission to ban the word “midget” from broadcast TV. The group said it had filed an official complaint with the FCC.
The request was prompted by an April episode of Donald Trump’s NBC reality show, “Celebrity Apprentice,” in which contestants created a detergent ad called “Jesse James Dirty with Midgets.” Contestants, including Melissa and Joan Rivers, used sexual innuendo in talking about little people actors and suggested that they be hung up to dry.
The LPA described the episode as “demeaning” in an open letter to NBC, and said the word was just as offensive as racial slurs.
An accompanying, unscientific reader poll on the Newsday site reported the following results:
Should the FCC comply with the Little People of America request to ban the word “midget” from broadcast TV?
Yes, the government should set an example (13 responses)
4.5%
Yes, but awareness needs to be raised in movies, cable TV and other media, too (47 responses)
No, but the group should raise awareness of how slurs can hurt others (230 responses)
290 total responses
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on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 10:36 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, dwarfism/little people, language, public attitudes.
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July 10th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Where does it stop with the censorship? Pretty soon, saying just anything to anyone will be deemed as “offensive”. The people in this country have gotten so thin skinned it’s sickening …