The award winning documentary "9/11" by French filmmakers Gedeon and Jules Naudet and retired New York firefighter James Hanlon, all of whom were with a New York fire crew on September 11^th 2001 (and one of the cameramen actually in Tower 1 when Tower 2 collapsed), has been prevented from airing on a number of CBS affiliates due to swearing in the film.

This perhaps marks a rather low watershed - the film was due to be aired at 8pm across the country, but after a campaign from Christian family pressure group the American Family Association it was decided by many affiliates not to show the film. I might take issue with this, if you please.

Airing profanity for profanities sake before the 10pm watershed in the US is not acceptable. In the case of this documentary however, I daresay it is warranted, even if kids are watching - indeed, I daresay that children too young to now remember September 11^th 2001 are the best audience for this film. The swearing in it is not gratuitous. It is human nature, and the swearing is "mostly by fire fighters" - That is, the chaps who ran into the burning buildings whilst everyone else was running out.

To censor or simply not air this documentary in a popular time slot because the men on the ground didn't have the good taste to say things like "Ohh my word, we appear to have been accosted by some rogue trouble makers" instead of "Holy fucking bananas some bastard just flew another goddamn plane into the goddamn tower" is stupid Political Correctness nonsense. Even moreso perhaps coming from an organisation like the AFA, whose other issues of the day include telling us how Ford's 11.6% drop in sales probably has something to do with homosexuals.

I think that we can make exceptions to strict watershed rules in the case of documentaries. Indeed, in the UK you will sometimes news items and documentaries with profane language shown in the middle of the day. Why? Because these things need to be seen. "9/11" is not a film about swearing fire fighters. It's a film about a day that needs to be remembered. Concentrate on the latter, not the former.