Save Private Ryan from the FCC??

Today being Veteran's Day, I rose early and put the flag out in it's usual place next to the front door. went back inside, had a couple of coffees and began to look anxiously towards our yearly viewing of "saving private ryan". i regard the film as one of, if not the best, wwII stories ever made. it seems to capture a lot of what my father and other wwII vets have told me about that war. i had heard that abc was going to run it today,"unedited". of course we have it on dvd (along with "the big red one", another great picture ), so i didn't think much about it.

but, this morning i heard the strangest thing on the news. it seems that 20 or so abc affiliates are refusing to air the film...

for fear of the fcc and their new found talent for handing out fines for "indecency". the rationale being that the realism that the film strives for includes "graphic violence" and "obscenities". and another issue was that the movie (a long 'un) begins at 8pm. prime time. but still, late enough that the little ones would be in bed by then in my home.

apparently, the affiliates are under pressure from a few "family" groups such as the american family association (who??).

what surprised me, was that similar pressure was not applied by the parental television council. the ptc is a conservative group that "rates" television programs by "family values". i've looked at their site several times and i'll tell ya, not much gets by with them.

now, here's what bothers me about this. and this is, of course, just my humble opinion;

1) nearly every conservative i know backs the iraq war with no doubts and with much conviction

2) war is graphically violent. war is obscene. on many levels. the least of which is the salty vocabulary.

so the questions i am doodling with are;

1) how can you fervently support the war in iraq (or any war) yet choose to be offended by even watered down portrayals of it's reality?

2) how can you support a war for freedom when you want to curb the freedom of speech in your own country?

3) if you choose to attempt either or both of the above, why can you not just change the channel to something more wholesome? ( fear factor? survivor? the bachelor? )

by the way, what i'm critiquing here is the ideas, not the people that hold them. capice?

ready? set? goooooooooo?