Censorship on MTV

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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. MTV altered or removed shows from the channel's schedule and music videos were censored, moved to late-night rotation, or banned entirely from the channel.

1 Political correctness
- 1.1 Religion and race
2 Censored music videos
- 2.1 Videos moved to late-night or obscure rotation
3 Banned music videos
- 3.1 From MTV in the United States
- 3.2 From MTV in Europe
4 See also
5 References
- 5.1 Citations

Political correctness

MTV came under criticism for being 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' tendency to flick a lighter and scream the word "fire" was removed from new episodes, and controversial scenes were removed from existing episodes before rebroadcast.^[1] Some of the edits were so extensive that when series creator Mike Judge compiled his Collection DVDs he found out that "some of those episodes may not even exist actually in their original form".^[2]

The Parents Television Council has argued that much of the censored material on MTV can be easily discernible because of the context within where the material in question has been presented.^[3]^[4]

Religion and race

In the 1980s, parent-media watchdog groups such as the PMRC criticized MTV over certain music videos that were claimed to have explicit imagery of Satanism. MTV has developed a strict policy on refusal to air videos that may depict devil worship or anti-religious bigotry.^[5] This led MTV to ban the videos for "Jesus Christ Pose" by Soundgarden^[6] and "Megalomaniac" by Incubus.^[7]

Usually, all ethnic and racial slurs are censored on MTV music videos^[8] and programming.^[9] MTV has emphasized racial tolerance and diversity awareness for people of all races and creeds. ^[10]

Censored music videos

MTV has also heavily edited a number of music videos to remove references to drugs,^[11] sex, violence, weapons, racism, homophobia, or advertising.^[12] Examples of such edits have included:

In the song "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston, the word "suicidal" was censored, and replaced with "in denial". In similar MTV owned channels, such as MTV Jams, it is completely censored.^[13]
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".^[14] Jackson argued that the song used the words to describe prejudice and that it was poor judgment to select Jewish people as explanatory words.^[15]
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."^[16]
"This Love" by Maroon 5 had the word "coming" edited out of the lyrics due to possible sexual connotation.^[17]
The song "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance had the words "Gun", "Murder", "Shirt", and "Pay" censored because of the attack on Virginia Tech (in addition to the usual removal of profanities).
When the music video for "Paper Planes" by M.I.A. was released on MTV, the word "weed" was removed from the second verse, and the gunshot sounds that are heard in the chorus were replaced with cash register sounds in order to remove references to murder. Also, the singer's vocals were edited to take away from the song's mature content. This angered M.I.A. greatly, and she publicly spoke out against the censorship of the song on her MySpace blog.
"We Are All on Drugs" by Weezer had every lyric with the words 'on drugs' altered to 'in love'. This resulted in the lyrics not matching the words mouthed by the music video actors. Also, during part of the video, a newspaper was shown with the song title used as the headline. This was completely censored.
The song "Hip Hop Is Dead" by Nas was censored when the lines "I'll put an extended clip inside of my AK" were changed to "I'll put an extended clip and body 'em all day". The lines "murder the DJ" were also changed to "wreck the DJ".

"45" by Shinedown was heavily edited to remove the lyrics "the barrel of a .45" and "ashes of another life" from the chorus, forcing the title card of the video to refer to the song by the MTV-originated title "Staring Down..." Singer Brent Smith later stated that he felt the editing was not only hypocritical in light of other unedited videos MTV played but that the editing blurred the message of the song and that if they didn't wish to play the song as it was written, they should have refrained from playing it at all. Though the edited version of the video was aired a few times without the artists' consent, the song was eventually pulled from the airwaves.

"Low" by Foo Fighters was banned from MTV not due to lyrics but due to the content of the video. The video, shot in the style of an 8mm home video, featured Dave Grohl and Jack Black drinking excessively, vandalizing a hotel room, crossdressing and engaging in suggestive homosexual behavior.

"Domino" by Kiss has the lyrics "she got me by the balls" changed to "she got to have it all" because of the reference to the male testes.^[18]

"Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot has the lyrics "dial 1-900" censored, but does not have shit" censored.^[19]

"Sober" by Tool has the lyrics "Jesus won't you fucking whistle" changed to "Jesus won't you try and Whistle"^[20]

Videos moved to late-night or obscure rotation

To deal with criticism over risque content in certain videos, MTV moved certain videos to late-night rotation in censored format. Such videos included "If I Could Turn Back Time" by Cher and "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-a-Lot.^[5]

In February 2004, following the controversial Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show produced by MTV in which performer Justin Timberlake caused the exposure of a breast of co-performer Janet Jackson, MTV made several efforts to limit daytime rotation of music videos that it felt had too much sexual content to be shown following the controversy. Such videos included "This Love" by Maroon 5, "Splash Waterfalls" by Ludacris, "Magic Stick" by Lil' Kim, "Toxic" by Britney Spears, "I Miss You" by blink-182, "Salt Shaker" by Ying Yang Twins, and "Hotel" by Cassidy. By the middle of the month, MTV began playing edited versions of all the aforementioned videos. Additionally, the video for "Megalomaniac" by Incubus was pushed back not because of sexual content but because of depictions of German leader Adolf Hitler and people drinking oil.^[7]

Also, the video for "Smack My Bitch Up" by Prodigy was initially given late-night rotation on MTV's 120 Minutes due to a fistfight, sexual scenes and allegedly misogynistic language in the lyrics^[21] but was removed from rotation after one week, a decision supported by the feminist group National Organization for Women.^[22] The song "Étienne" by Guesch Patti was moved to late-night rotation in MTV Europe due to a striptease scene.^[23] The video "Prison Sex" by Tool was shown only on MTV's former rock-oriented digital cable channel MTVX due to sexual and violent content,^[24] but went on to be nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in 1995 for Best Special Effects.^[25] Alleged glorification of gun violence led MTV to show an edited version of the video "99 Problems" by Jay-Z only between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.^[26]