"You Can’t Air That"
Four Cases of Controversy and Censorship in American Television Programming

Cloth $19.95s    |    978-0-8156-3150-7    |    2007

A revealing study of the consequences of censorship in network television.

Reviews
"By telling engaging stories of creative expression and censorship and of network misjudgement and recovery, Silverman shows how commerical markets have both needed and feared artistic license and free expression."
—Journalism History

"A refreshing and engaging focus on the role that the networks play in censoring their own programming."
—Journal of Popular Culture

" ‘You can’t air that’: Four cases of controversy and censorship in American television programming. Highly recommended. All readers, all levels."
—CHOICE Editor’s Picks

"Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels."
—CHOICE Reviews Online

Description
In this illuminating book, David S. Silverman assesses four controversial television programs from the perspective of media history, assessing the censorship present at all four networks and the political and intellectual inertia it produces in broadcast television.

Beginning with The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the sixties, the author also examines The Richard Pryor Show, TV Nation, and Politically Incorrect. Drawing on firsthand accounts by the writers, producers, and performers of these programs, Silverman offers an unbiased view of the ways in which censorship, sponsor intimidation, regulation, and network tampering force all American broadcasters to manipulate creative talent and stifle genuine controversy. Shedding new light on the prevalence of censorship in broadcast television, this book reinvigorates the subject of free speech in American society.

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Author
David S. Silverman is Director of the Communications Program at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri.

5 1/2 x 8 1/2, 184 pages, notes, bibliography, index