But what if that curse word is dropped twice? Isn't that two fleeting obscenities? If it's dropped 28 times, that makes it 28 separate, "fleeting" curses as well. How, technically, is a curse word not defined as fleeting?

Let us be very clear here. The networks are not seeking legal protection from a single profanity. They are seeking the courts to recognize the inalienable right to swear like a sailor on TV at any time.

Even the titans of classic family entertainment, like Disney, have signed on to the anything-goes argument for airing profanity. At a recent shareholders meeting, Disney President and CEO Robert Iger declared Disney joined the pro-vulgarity coalition "because we believe it is our right to produce and distribute different kinds of products without interference from the federal government."

But wait: The same Robert Iger just last summer announced that Disney would bow to members of Congress and drop all smoking scenes from its family films and discourage such scenes in its Touchstone and Miramax pictures. Why would those requests for less smoking be a reasonable and admirable cause worth endorsing, but pleas for less swearing are an unbearable oppression?

Hollywood wouldn't need "interference" from Washington if they would simply do what they all know is the right thing. They know it's wrong to encourage and glamorize smoking for young and impressionable children. Isn't the logic of preventing the air pollution of unnecessary profanity just as much an open-and-shut case?