Editing Cunt (section)

===Television===
====United Kingdom====
Broadcast media is regulated for content, and media providers such as the [[BBC]] have guidelines which specify how "cunt" and similar words should be treated.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidance-language-full|title=Editorial Guidelines – Guidance – Language – Guidance in Full|work=[[BBC Online]]|access-date=13 September 2014|archive-date=25 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131225042103/http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/page/guidance-language-full|url-status=dead}}</ref> In a survey of 2000 commissioned by the British [[Ofcom|Broadcasting Standards Commission]], [[Independent Television Commission]], BBC and [[Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)|Advertising Standards Authority]], "cunt" was regarded as the most offensive word which could be heard, above "[[motherfucker]]" and "[[fuck]]".<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1EAEACA7-8322-4C86-AAC2-4261551F57FE/0/ASA_Delete_Expletives_Dec_2000.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090521075426/http://www.asa.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1EAEACA7-8322-4C86-AAC2-4261551F57FE/0/ASA_Delete_Expletives_Dec_2000.pdf | archive-date = 21 May 2009 | title = Delete Expletives | url-status = dead | access-date = 13 September 2013 }}</ref> Nevertheless, there have been occasions when, particularly in a live broadcast, the word has been aired outside editorial control:
* ''[[David Frost|The Frost Programme]]'', broadcast 7 November 1970, was the first time the word was known to have been used on British television, in an aside by [[Felix Dennis]].<ref name="Silverton" /> This incident has since been reshown many times.<ref name="Indy">{{cite news |url= https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-c-word-524059.html|title= The C word |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |date=22 January 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080502130148/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-c-word-524059.html |archive-date=2 May 2008 |access-date=13 September 2013}}</ref>
* [[Bernard Manning]] first said on television the line "They say you are what you eat. I'm a cunt."<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970201/ai_n14088564/pg_2|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130322004846/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19970201/ai_n14088564/pg_2|url-status= dead|archive-date= 22 March 2013|title= Books: A blast of Jacobson's Organ|access-date=6 March 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.theguardian.com/g2/story/0,,1541264,00.html|title= No laughing matter|access-date=6 March 2008 |work= The Guardian | location=London | first=Stuart | last=Jeffries | date=3 August 2005}}</ref>
* ''[[This Morning (TV programme)|This Morning]]'' broadcast the word in 2000, used by model [[Caprice Bourret]] while being interviewed live about her role in ''[[The Vagina Monologues]]''.<ref>{{cite news |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020214201246/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=114876 |url= http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=114876 |archive-date=14 February 2002 |title=Caprice accidentally breaks the last linguistic taboo on television |access-date=6 March 2008 | work=The Independent |url-status= dead | location=London}}</ref>

The first scripted uses of the word on British television occurred in 1979, in the [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] drama ''No Mama No''.<ref name="Silverton" /><ref name = "Indy"/> In ''[[Jerry Springer – The Opera]]'' (BBC, 2005), the suggestion that the Christ character might be gay was found more controversial than the chant describing the Devil as "cunting, cunting, cunting, cunting cunt".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/jan/09/broadcasting.religion|title = F*** you, says BBC as 50,000 rage at Spr*ng*r |access-date=6 March 2008 | work=The Guardian | location=London | first=Vanessa | last=Thorpe | date=9 January 2005}}</ref>

In July 2007 [[BBC Three (former)|BBC Three]] broadcast an hour-long documentary, entitled ''The 'C' Word'', about the origins, use and evolution of the word from the early 1900s to the present day. Presented by British comedian [[Will Smith (comedian)|Will Smith]], viewers were taken to a street in [[Oxford]] once called [[Gropecunt Lane]] and presented with examples of the acceptability of "cunt" as a word.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007sj0x|title= The C Word: How We Came to Swear By It|access-date=6 March 2008}}</ref> (Note that "the C-word" is also a long-standing euphemism for cancer; [[Lisa Lynch]]'s book led to a BBC1 drama, both with that title.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Groskop|first1=Viv|title=Lisa Lynch obituary Writer who recounted her experience of cancer with engaging candour and published a book based on her popular blog|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/18/lisa-lynch|access-date=20 May 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 March 2015}}</ref>)

The ''Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio'' report by [[Ofcom]], based on research conducted by [[Ipsos MORI]], categorised the usage of the word 'cunt' as a highly unacceptable pre-[[Watershed (broadcasting)#United Kingdom|watershed]], but generally acceptable post-watershed, along with 'fuck' and 'motherfucker'. Discriminatory words were generally considered as more offensive than the most offensive non-discriminatory words such as 'cunt' by the UK public, with discriminatory words being more regulated as a result.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/91624/OfcomOffensiveLanguage.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009191715/https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/91624/OfcomOffensiveLanguage.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2016 |url-status=live|date=September 2016|title=Attitudes to potentially offensive language and gestures on TV and radio|work=[[Ipsos MORI]]|publisher=[[Ofcom]]|access-date=24 August 2018}}</ref>

====United States====
The first scripted use on US television was on the ''[[Larry Sanders Show]]'' in 1992, and a notable use occurred in ''[[Sex and the City]]''.<ref name="Silverton" /> In the US, an episode of the [[NBC]] TV show ''[[30 Rock]]'', titled "[[The C Word (30 Rock)|The C Word]]", centered around a subordinate calling protagonist [[Liz Lemon]] ([[Tina Fey]]) a "cunt" and her subsequent efforts to regain her staff's favour.<ref>{{cite web|title=30 Rock - Season 1, Episode 14: The "C" Word - TV.com|url=http://www.tv.com/shows/30-rock/the-c-word-892404/|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628184930/http://www.tv.com/shows/30-rock/the-c-word-892404/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Characters in the popular TV series ''[[The Sopranos]]'' often used the term.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The essential Sopranos reader|url=https://archive.org/details/essentialsoprano00lave|url-access=limited|last=Lavery|first=David|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|others=Lavery, David, 1949-, Howard, Douglas L., 1966-, Levinson, Paul.|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8131-3014-9|location=Lexington, KY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/essentialsoprano00lave/page/n105 93]–104|oclc=739713784}}</ref> [[Jane Fonda]] uttered the word on a live airing of the ''[[Today (NBC program)|Today Show]]'', a network broadcast-TV news program, in 2008 when being interviewed by co-host [[Meredith Vieira]] about ''[[The Vagina Monologues]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/15/fonda_slip/|title=Jane Fonda c-word slip shocks US |website=[[The Register]] |access-date=6 March 2008}}</ref>  Coincidentally, nearly two years later in 2010, also on the ''Today Show'', Vieira interviewed a thirteen-year-old girl said the word twice to describe the contents of [[Text messaging|text messages]] she was privy to that were central to a well publicised and violent assault.  Meredith gently cautioned the girl to choose her words more carefully. As this was a live broadcast on the East Coast, the slurs already were already broadcast, but the producers removed the audio for the Central, Mountain, and Pacific feeds as well as online.  Like the Fonda incident, Vieira issued an apology later in the show.<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 June 2010 |title=WATCH: 13-Year-Old Girl Says 'C-Word' Twice On 'Today' Show |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kayla-manson-13-year-old_n_607266 |access-date=14 June 2023 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref>  Media Critic Thomas Francis commented on what he perceived to be hypocrisy in the media industry:

{{Blockquote
|text= Isn't it interesting how the national media licks its chops over this story, delighting in every gory detail, only to caution a 13-year-old girl to be "careful about our language"? <br/> <br/>
Why should she be careful, Meredith? Because there are 13-year-old girls in the audience? There's so much violence and vulgarity in modern American culture, words like ''cunt'' are like so many deck chairs on the ''Titanic''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Francis |first=Thomas |title=Kids Say the Damnedest Things: 13-Year-Old Deerfield Student Drops C-Word on Today Show |url=https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/kids-say-the-damnedest-things-13-year-old-deerfield-student-drops-c-word-on-today-show-6455155 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=New Times Broward-Palm Beach |language=en}}</ref>
}}

In 2018, Canadian comedian [[Samantha Bee]] had to apologise after calling [[Ivanka Trump]], a [[White House]] official and the daughter of US President [[Donald Trump]], a "feckless cunt".<ref name="Mahdawi">{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/01/samantha-bee-ivanka-trump-c-word-america|title=Samantha Bee proves there's still one word you can't say in America|last=Mahdawi|first=Arwa|date=1 June 2018|website=The Guardian|language=en|access-date=2 June 2018}}</ref>