One of the benefits of being a minority language is that sometimes the government isn’t paying attention. The Washington Post Post IT Tech blog (Frank Ahrens) posted a news story about how the Spanish language television/media companies are under-policed in comparison to their “mainstream” English speaking counterparts.
That is more swearing can go on by Spanish shock jocks and larger vertical monopolies can be built before being investigated for anti-trust. For instance Ahrens notes that Univision, based in Los Angeles is a TV network, three record labels and a radio chain who can garner a 90% share of the Spanish speaking audience in some markets. There must be a conflict of interest in there somewhere.
Ahrens asks if it’s a language issue and my answer is “Sure is”. Rumor is that the first vulgar reference to female genitalia on the BCC was in Welsh (all thanks to the need to fill in a Welsh-language music show with a Welsh punk band). This is definitely the funnier side of seeing a minority community “pull one over” on the majority.
Oddly though, there are now enough Spanish speakers in the US for there to be serious complaints. Apparently the FCC is deciding if Univision violated their obligation to provide appropriate children’s television programming. It appears that Spanish-speaking members of the United Church of Christ do NOT think telenovelas, or the beloved Spanish language soap opera, should count. I have to wonder…did Univision mean the ones set in the 18th century Spanish colonies? Maybe they were considered more “educational”.