Censorship on MTV

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MTV series

Censorship on MTV has been the subject of debate for years. MTV, the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., has come under criticism for being too politically correct and sensitive, censoring too much of their programming. Many of MTV's shows were altered or removed from the channel's schedule. Additionally, many music videos aired on the channel were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

However, their attempts at censorship have proven ineffective, as the conservative American political group Parents Television Council has set up a section of their website against MTV for excessive profane content in their programming, including bleeped profanities that they claim are still discernable by context or the bleep incompletely cutting out the word. In a study that covered MTV's "Spring Break" lineup from 2004, the majority of content the PTC claimed inappropriate was usually bleeped or blurred out, but the PTC defended that they were inappropriate because of the context in which they were presented. The study even included the Maroon 5 music video "This Love", whose song is inoffensive but video allegedly contains sexual content.

1 Political correctness
2 Censored music videos
3 Religious imagery
4 Ethnic and racial slurs
5 Banned Music Videos
6 See also
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Political correctness

MTV came under criticism for being far too politically correct and sensitive when it came to censorship. This was most prevalent in the eventual decline of the hit show Jackass. The creators of Jackass often felt that MTV's producers did not let the show run its free course due to the excessive restraints placed on the Jackass team.

MTV's influence also affected its famous animated program, Beavis and Butt-Head. In the wake of controversy that followed a child burning down his house after allegedly watching the show, producers moved the show from its original 7 p.m. time slot to a late-night, 11 p.m. slot. Also, Beavis was no longer shown flicking a lighter and screaming the word "fire" in subsequent episodes.^[1] The channel also went and cut the controversal scenes out the existing episodes before rebroadcast and when Mike Judge compiled his Collection DVDs he found out that "some of those episodes may not even exist actually in their original form".^[2]

[edit] Censored music videos

MTV has also heavily edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs, sex, or weapons. Edits include, but are not limited to:

"45" by Shinedown was renamed "Staring Down", and a good portion of the chorus is edited to eliminate gun references.
"The Old Apartment" video by Barenaked Ladies had a scene removed where the protagonist rips a telephone off of a wall.
"We Are All On Drugs" by Weezer is renamed "We Are All In Love" and lyrics are changed from "On Drugs" to "In Love".
"Hash Pipe" by Weezer had the word "Hash" obscured, and the vocal has been edited to sound like "Half".
"Four Kicks" by Kings of Leon has the words "guns" and "switchblade" censored in the chorus.
"Stinkfist" by Tool was renamed "Track #1" since the title was considered "too offensive for public consumption".
One of System of a Down's first videos, "Sugar", was also one of their most censored videos, as it censored the words "mushroom", "Russian", and "anger", besides the usual censoring of "fuck" in the song.
In the video for Coheed and Cambria's single "A Favor House Atlantic", the word "shoot" is obscured in the chorus.
In Avenged Sevenfold's video for "Bat Country", the word "trigger" in "My hand is on the trigger, I'm ready to ignite" was censored.
Melanie C's first solo single "Goin' Down" came under fire as the word "bitch" was censored, but not "whore". This also applied to her single "If That Were Me", which was banned from airplay for the line "I can't live without my phone, but you don't even have a home".
The chorus of the song "The Nobodies" by Marilyn Manson was heavily censored. The original chorus "some children died the other day, we fed machines and then we prayed, puked up and down in morbid faith, you should have seen the ratings that day" has the words "children", "died", and "ratings" bleeped out. MTV censored these words because the song is about the Columbine shootings.
For Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule's single "I'm Real", MTV censored the racially charged word "niggas". Ja Rule claims he never meant to refer African Americans in that manner, but chose the term "nigga" as a term of endearment when used among Black youth.
Eminem's single "The Real Slim Shady" cut out references and words like "queer" or "fag" that were deemed offensive to homosexuals.
In Michael Jackson's single "They Don't Care About Us", MTV has replaced the words "Jew me" and "kike me" with "do me" and "strike me" in the line "Jew me, sue me... kick me, kike me; don't you black-or-white me". According to Jackson, his song had the words to describe prejudice and it was poor judgment to select Jewish people as examplatory words.
Hawthorne Heights' song "Ohio Is For Lovers" has the word "cut" edited out in the lyrics "Cut my wrists and black my eyes, so I can fall asleep tonight."
Nelly's single "Grillz", MTV censored the word "rob" in the lyrics "Rob the jewelery store, tell 'em make me a grill".
In Saves the Day's song "At Your Funeral", MTV edited out the word "high" in the lyric "You're two floors down getting high in the back room...", but the lyric remained intact when heard on alternative radio stations.
Motion City Soundtrack's video "Everything is Alright" had the word "self" in self-medication censored.
Alkaline Trio's video for "Stupid Kid" was edited by MTV, replaced with an alternate take. The video depicts an elementary school age boy who has a crush on his teacher. Throughout the video, he is scorned by students and eventually ridiculed by the teacher herself. In the final scene, the student leaves the school to pause outside the teacher's window. As the teacher looks on, he takes off the knit beanie he wears throughout the video, and the teacher gapes in horror. Smoke begins to billow around her and she wrestles with the window frame, which is stuck. The final shot reveals the student to have two demonic horns protruding out of his head. The "friendly" version keeps the teacher in the window, but no smoke is seen.
Cherish's video for "Do It to It" had the word "kryptonite" edited out in the phrase "on that kryptonite".
Gun references have been edited out of MTV videos as early as 1997 after the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., when they were casualties of the East Coast-West Coast rap war.
Yung Joc's video for his single "It's Goin' Down" had the word "trap" censored when he says "meet me in the trap, it's goin' down".
50 Cent's video for "Just A Little Bit" had the word "sex" censored, but the word "nigga" was not.
The Game's video for "Put You On The Game" had many of The Black Wallstreet members are seen wearing "Free Shyne" shirts, but the word "free" was blurred.
In Akon's video "Smack That", the phrase "smack that" was censored in some parts, but left unedited in others.

[edit] Religious imagery

MTV received a heavy load of criticism from the religious right in the 1980's and parent-media watchdog groups (such as the PMRC) over certain music videos had "graphic and sacrilegious imagery" of satanism and the devil. MTV has developed a strict policy on refusal to air videos that may depict devil worship.

[edit] Ethnic and racial slurs

Usually, all ethnic and racial slurs are censored on MTV music videos and programming. MTV has emphasized racial tolerance and diversity awareness for all creeds, minorities, women, and homosexuals.