Profanity increases on TV

Television is cussing up an increasingly blue streak, according to a study of the major broadcast networks.

“During the 2002-2003 season, the broadcast networks attempted to rewrite the book on language standards for television,” the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group, reported this week.

The organization said it studied all prime-time entertainment series on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, WB and UPN for a two-week period in 1998, 2000 and 2002 and found a jump in profanity on “virtually every network” and in every time slot.

The group called on the TV industry to “get serious about reducing the flood of vulgarity.... Barring that, the FCC needs to get serious about enforcing broadcast decency laws.”