Media Guardian: Fearful US TV networks censor more shows

The news that Fox are going to pixelate a bare pair of buttons from a cartoon that was first shown five years ago uncut, on the face of it sounds rather amusing.

But since the now infamous Janet Jackson nipple incident, it seems US TV has gone into paranoia mode - you really have to wonder why 66 ABC affiliates felt they couldn't show Saving Private Ryan due to bad language.

And perhaps it shows us just what TV in the UK could be like if groups like Christian Voice had managed to ban Jerry Springer: The Opera - a production that seems unlikely to be heading over the pond any time soon.

Of course there should be sensible standards and rules for broadcasters to follow - rules which Ofcom and its forefathers have been the master of. And if a broadcaster breaks those rules, then that is a matter for the regulator and the broadcaster - as it should be. But no broadcaster should be so paranoid that it feels the need to go back and re-edit something that was perfectly acceptable just five years earlier.